9 11 trials
Obama Guarantees the Death of KSM, Sort Of
In an interview with the all-powerful Chuck Todd today, President Obama addressed concerns about the decision to put 9/11 plotter Khalid Sheik Mohammed, and others, on trial in New York. “I don't think it will be offensive at all when he's convicted and when the death penalty is applied to him,” Obama said. So confident! But should he be?
Not according to people who have done this type of thing before. As "veteran federal prosecutors" told the Daily News:
[I]n the feds' few past tries at the death penalty for foreign terrorists, they lost. And New York juries are seen as among the least likely to agree — unanimously, as the law requires — on execution.
All it takes is one lone juror to scuttle the whole thing. Maybe they think life in jail is a worse punishment, or maybe they don't want to let the terrorists become martyrs. The point is, the death penalty isn't a slam-dunk. If the jury hands down a life sentence, Obama may have to personally kill KSM just to avoid the embarrassment.
