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Moussaoui no plea { June 26 2002 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A42116-2002Jun25.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A42116-2002Jun25.html
Moussaoui's 'No Plea' Is Rejected By U.S. Judge
'Not Guilty' Entered for Suspect; Series of Motions Also Fails
By Tom Jackman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, June 26, 2002; Page A14
Zacarias Moussaoui tried to enter "no plea" during his arraignment yesterday on charges of participating in the plot to attack New York and the Pentagon on Sept. 11, then derided the federal judge handling his case after she entered a not guilty plea on his behalf.
"You have no intention at all of allowing me to defend myself," Moussaoui, 34, told U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema in Alexandria after she ruled against him on a series of motions. "You are just preparing me for the gas chamber."
Moussaoui was angry not only because he lost motions such as his request to move the trial from Alexandria, but also because Brinkema has not allowed lawyer Charles Freeman, a Muslim from Houston, to enter the case.
Moussaoui has fired his court-appointed lawyers and said he wanted Freeman's help. But Freeman has not formally entered an appearance in the case, as required in U.S. courts. Brinkema has given Freeman until Friday to enter his appearance.
Freeman entered the courtroom about 15 minutes into Moussaoui's arraignment. He declined to answer questions after the hearing.
Arraignments in federal court typically are routine proceedings. Prosecutors obtained a superseding indictment of Moussaoui last week, making only slight alterations in the narrative of events leading up to Sept. 11, and no changes in the actual charges against Moussaoui. Four of the counts carry a possible death sentence.
But ever since Moussaoui asked to fire his lawyers two months ago, his hearings have not been routine. He almost immediately began objecting to Brinkema's characterization of his first arraignment -- when lawyers he soon came to detest were representing him. "I want the proceeding to start from zero," Moussaoui demanded yesterday.
"Mr. Moussaoui, you don't control the courtroom," Brinkema responded. "I do. If you don't enter a plea, I will enter one for you."
Moussaoui said he wanted to enter "no plea." Brinkema said she would enter a plea of not guilty.
"I do not accept the plea of not guilty," Moussaoui said. "I say no plea." He also said he planned to plead no contest and used the Latin term nolo contendere as he lectured the judge about its meaning.
Brinkema seemed to shrug her shoulders as she asked, "Do you want a trial by jury?"
Moussaoui answered, "At the present time, yes."
Brinkema set the start of jury selection for Sept. 30, followed by the trial. Moussaoui then said, "I will plead no contest."
The judge listened to Moussaoui denounce his various appointed lawyers, saying, "They have tried, in concert with the government, to convict me."
Brinkema responded: "A plea of nolo contendere is completely inconsistent with your contention that your lawyers are trying to convict you. You're the only one in this court, besides the prosecutor, who is trying to convict you."
A no contest plea is normally interpreted by the courts as a guilty plea. "Typically, what it means is that while you do not admit your guilt, you admit the government has sufficient evidence to convince a jury beyond a reasonable doubt that you are guilty," said Barry J. Pollack, a former federal public defender in Maryland. "You wouldn't have a trial, and you'd go to sentencing."
But Pollack said it was unlikely Brinkema would accept such a plea from Moussaoui, especially if he's not clear what it means. In entering a not guilty plea for Moussaoui, Pollack said, "she was saying he wasn't knowingly and intelligently entering a plea. . . . Here, [Moussaoui] is plainly demonstrating that he doesn't understand what he's doing."
Brinkema also denied Moussaoui's second "emergency motion" for his release, based on his contention that the government knows he is innocent. "This is an outrageous prosecution," Moussaoui responded, "when the government has the information I had nothing to do with Sept. 11 because I was under surveillance. The government is unable to deny this. They just go about saying, 'Indeed the government is unaware of any surveillance.' I want a certification that I was not under surveillance."
Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert A. Spencer, the lead prosecutor, again said he was unaware of any surveillance of Moussaoui before his arrest in Minnesota last August while he was taking flying lessons.
Over Moussaoui's objection, Brinkema said she probably would allow victims of Sept. 11 to watch the trial on closed-circuit broadcasts. She also said she believed Moussaoui could get a fair trial with a jury pool from Northern Virginia, and that the attacks affected all Americans, not just local government employees.
The judge also granted the government's motion to withhold the addresses of witnesses, though Moussaoui said that would prevent him from investigating them. He said he had been given the background information of a witness he had questioned Monday at the Alexandria jail without problems. The witness's name was kept secret, but prosecutors said his testimony concerned the "formation of the Hamburg cell in Germany," and Brinkema said in an order that the witness had entered a plea agreement. Those facts apply to Agus Budiman, an Indonesian who pleaded guilty to document fraud in March and admitted knowing two of the hijackers when they attended school in Hamburg.
"They can bring anybody they want, say anything they want, there is no way to check to see who they are," Moussaoui said. "You are just putting me in my cell and running your show because I have no meaningful way to defend myself. It's a parody."
© 2002 The Washington Post Company
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