Family members of those killed in the attacks of September 11, 2001
expressed relief at the jury's decision to sentence Zacarias
Moussaoui to life today. "More than anyone, we understand why the
jury chose the sentence they did," said Terry Rockefeller, whose
sister Laura Rockefeller was in the North Tower of the World Trade
Center on September 11, 2001. "As a long-time opponent of the death
penalty, a belief even this devastating personal tragedy has not
altered, I am relieved by the jury's decision not to sentence
Zacarias Moussaoui to death."
Rockefeller, a member of the Board of Directors of Murder Victims'
Families for Reconciliation, was among the dozen 9/11 family members
to testify for the defense in the punishment phase of the trial of
Zacarias Moussaoui. The federal rules regarding victim statements
significantly restricted what Terry and others could say on the
stand, and the attorneys for the defense asked Terry and others not
to speak to the press until after the jury returned their verdict.
This is the first time victim family members who oppose capital
punishment have ever testified in a federal death penalty trial. Such
testimony is becoming more common at the state level where increasing
numbers of murder victim family members who oppose the death penalty
are making their feelings known.
"Mr. Moussaoui's trial has been an expensive diversion in the
struggle against terrorism. His alleged crime of conspiracy could
have been quickly disposed if the option of execution were not
possible," said Patricia Perry, whose son John William Perry, was a
member of the New York Police Department who died at the World Trade
Center. "Beyond the verdict in this trial, I oppose using the death
penalty to demonstrate to citizens that murder is so wrong that we
will kill to prove it wrong. State killing teaches our children that
we do not mean what we say and inures us as a society to the horror
of killing."
"My husband and I both opposed the death penalty in general. For me,
now, this particular case is no exception," said Andrea LeBlanc,
whose husband Robert was a passenger on United Flight 175, the 2nd
plane that crashed into the World Trade Center, hitting the South
Tower.
"Violence takes many forms and killing another human being will never
undo the harm that has been done. Killing Zacarius Moussaoui would
not have helped us understand those things that lead to 9/11. Nor
would it have helped create the kind of compassionate world I want to
live in."
For Loretta Filipov, whose husband Al was on American Flight 11 from
Boston, the first plane to hit the World Trade Center, crashing into
the North Tower, said, "Killing Zacarius Moussaoui will not bring my
husband back. It will not change the life my family and I now have
without my husband and their father. But what killing will do is to
continue the cycle of violence, hate and revenge. This is not the
face we want for our future, for our children and grandchildren."
Family member Antonio Aversano, who testified for the defense and
whose father Louis Aversano, Jr., was a World Trade Center victim,
believes "that our best personal defense against terrorism is to not
let the fear and hatred of terror consume our lives but to take
whatever steps are necessary to reclaim our hearts, to honor each
other and to live life well."
"A number of us have tried to turn our anger and pain into
solutions," said Rockefeller. "For many who lost loved ones that
Tuesday morning the answer is not more killing to attempt to solve
the past, but rather steps to a future in which all killing is
condemned and terrorists cannot find purchase."
