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Coffey Talk: Moussaoui Case Crumbling?
Aired October 03, 2003 - 06:22 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: An interesting court case to talk about this morning, is the Moussaoui case crumbling? A federal judge in Washington has barred the government from seeking the death penalty. That's a tough decision for prosecutors, since the government initially portrayed Zacarias Moussaoui as a central figure in the September 11 conspiracy.
So what happens now? Time for some "Coffey Talk" on the Moussaoui mess.
Live on the phone from Miami, our legal analyst, Kendall Coffey.
Good morning -- Kendall.
KENDALL COFFEY, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Morning -- Carol.
COSTELLO: So Moussaoui was once considered a central figure in the -- in the 9/11 attacks. Now if he is convicted, he won't face the death penalty. How did this happen?
COFFEY: Well he won't face the death penalty based on the order as it stands right now, and the government is not going to be allowed to present any evidence that he knew about or participated in the 9/11 attacks themselves. And this is all reflecting from a shattering collision between the constitutional rights of a defendant and the national concerns the country has in the war on terrorism.
COSTELLO: That's because Moussaoui wanted alleged terrorists to testify and prosecutors won't let them testify because of national security, right?
COFFEY: Exactly. The Constitution establishes that a defendant has a right to witnesses who may provide helpful testimony who are in government custody. Here those three witnesses, though, are senior members of al Qaeda, including No. 3 guy Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, that the government is maintaining in sequestrations so they can interrogate them. They don't want them to be accessible to the Moussaoui defense team.
COSTELLO: Do you think that Moussaoui's request came as a surprise to federal prosecutors?
COFFEY: No, this has really been sort of an inevitability playing out. The big question is what do they do now? If the appeals court does not reverse the judge's ruling, then it could be that Moussaoui goes from the civilian courts to a military tribunal where a lot of these very difficult constitutional issues will not -- will not have to be confronted.
COSTELLO: Yes, we'll see what happens.
I want to talk about the Kobe Bryant case for just a second, any surprises that came out of the hearing in Colorado yesterday?
COFFEY: No big surprises. Neither the alleged victim nor her medical records are going to be at the October 9 preliminary hearing. But, Carol, the defense is going to continue to explore the so-called medical issues, specifically whether the alleged hospitalizations in February and May present some sort of mental or emotional instability that could bear on the all-important issue of her reliabilities as star prosecution witness against basketball star Kobe Bryant.
COSTELLO: All right. Kendall Coffey, live on the phone for us from Miami, thanks so much.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired October 3, 2003 - 06:22 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: An interesting court case to talk about this morning, is the Moussaoui case crumbling? A federal judge in Washington has barred the government from seeking the death penalty. That's a tough decision for prosecutors, since the government initially portrayed Zacarias Moussaoui as a central figure in the September 11 conspiracy.
So what happens now? Time for some "Coffey Talk" on the Moussaoui mess.
Live on the phone from Miami, our legal analyst, Kendall Coffey.
Good morning -- Kendall.
KENDALL COFFEY, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Morning -- Carol.
COSTELLO: So Moussaoui was once considered a central figure in the -- in the 9/11 attacks. Now if he is convicted, he won't face the death penalty. How did this happen?
COFFEY: Well he won't face the death penalty based on the order as it stands right now, and the government is not going to be allowed to present any evidence that he knew about or participated in the 9/11 attacks themselves. And this is all reflecting from a shattering collision between the constitutional rights of a defendant and the national concerns the country has in the war on terrorism.
COSTELLO: That's because Moussaoui wanted alleged terrorists to testify and prosecutors won't let them testify because of national security, right?
COFFEY: Exactly. The Constitution establishes that a defendant has a right to witnesses who may provide helpful testimony who are in government custody. Here those three witnesses, though, are senior members of al Qaeda, including No. 3 guy Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, that the government is maintaining in sequestrations so they can interrogate them. They don't want them to be accessible to the Moussaoui defense team.
COSTELLO: Do you think that Moussaoui's request came as a surprise to federal prosecutors?
COFFEY: No, this has really been sort of an inevitability playing out. The big question is what do they do now? If the appeals court does not reverse the judge's ruling, then it could be that Moussaoui goes from the civilian courts to a military tribunal where a lot of these very difficult constitutional issues will not -- will not have to be confronted.
COSTELLO: Yes, we'll see what happens.
I want to talk about the Kobe Bryant case for just a second, any surprises that came out of the hearing in Colorado yesterday?
COFFEY: No big surprises. Neither the alleged victim nor her medical records are going to be at the October 9 preliminary hearing. But, Carol, the defense is going to continue to explore the so-called medical issues, specifically whether the alleged hospitalizations in February and May present some sort of mental or emotional instability that could bear on the all-important issue of her reliabilities as star prosecution witness against basketball star Kobe Bryant.
COSTELLO: All right. Kendall Coffey, live on the phone for us from Miami, thanks so much.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
