In a nod to comments BakerStreet made, I will refrain from using the actual name of the notorious "20th hijacker" in this thread. I will not give him any "airplay" so to speak.

But I will respectfully disagree with his conclusion that the life sentence was necessarily the right one. The "right one" exists in some ether that our justice system doesn't recognize.

You see, while the death sentence would have made him a cause du jour for certain activists, it would, implemented properly, have prevented an all but certain outcome of life in prison. You see, Moo-Sow-Oui's (I especially like the middle part..."sow" is, after all, a pig, and a perfect desecration for a jihadist...but I digress) sentence allows him to become the unthinkable. He will become the greatest evangelist of his generation for Black Muslims in our nation's penal system. His very presence will likely spark race wars between races already sharply divided within these facilities, and it is virtually certain that even if he is confined to solitary confinement, smuggled writings (as well as writings falsely attributed to him) will find their way into the hands of the zealous Black Muslim groups, and will further fuel the fires of racial hatred.

What concerns me even more, however, are the reasons the jury decided against the death penalty. They fell prey to the defense's contention that Moo-Sow-Oui's actions were the result of a troubled childhood, and that Moo-Sow-Oui was a victim rather than a villain. Their rationale proved to me firmly and finally that the debate over whether the Flight 93 movie's release was "too soon" should be put to rest. We have, sadly, forgotten that date, during which the collective hearts of 290 million Americans was ripped from our chest as we watched nearly 3,000 of our countrymen and women lose their lives.

Had their rationale been based on not wanting to grant celebrity status to this man; had it been based on wanting to see his sentence become final and let the families of those 3,000 finally have some rest knowing he wouldn't face endless appeals, I would have understood it. But because it was based on a troubled childhood, I am deeply disturbed by the mindset of that jury. We need to remember what we lost on that day, the pain and fear that every one of us knew in the hours of uncertainty that followed. Not the "troubled childhood" of some unthinkable monster who cheered as the rest of us wept.

The perfect sentence for Moo-Sow-Oui is, unfortunately, not available. It would require confinement in a sort of gulag where he had NO contact with the outside world, but was allowed to simply disappear from the face of the earth in a most undignified and unrecognized manner. Barring that, a life sentence is probably a better alternative than death.

But I do NOT like the mentality that brought it about.