The Moussaoui verdict

Dahlia Lithwick parses the jury's verdict.

This decision, which will doubtless bring with it some serious national fallout, is more subtle, and more courageous, than the prosecution itself. Acting as a check on a runaway state, these jurors refused to allow a government needing a scapegoat and a man wishing for martyrdom to stand in the way of the facts. These jurors understood that for this country to kill a terrorist for his ideas, hopes, and dreams is not much different than the terrorist's desire to come here and kill us for ours.

Unfortunately, I suspect the government -- and others -- will take the wrong lesson from this. Not the lesson that open court is exactly where these cases need to be tried. Not the lesson that the Moussaoui verdict shows the world that American justice is not based on revenge and blood vendettas. That we don't execute people on the government's say-so. Instead, they'll take this as a lesson that special secret courts and military tribunals are the place to ensure the verdict they're looking for and, even more importantly, make sure that the government's bungling leading up to Sept. 11, 2001 is not brought to light, as the Moussaoui trial certainly did.

Of course, for this good Catholic girl, it's not about vengeance, it's just about gettin' a good killin' on. I know the Nooner knows a great many felons from her days in the Reagan White House, so maybe it's her knowledge of white collar crime that leads her to believe that federal maximum security prisons offer cable (maybe even high speed internets access) in prisoners' cells.