Thursday, May 04, 2006

A Fate Worse Than Death?

It looks like Moussaoui will be spending the rest of his days in Colorado. For most people, that would be considered a dream, unless the part of Colorado that you get to live in is a 7x12 foot concrete cell in Florence.

I've never visited the Supermax facility (very few innocents or non-correctional workers have), but I did get to tour the Colorado maximum security prison in Canon City before it was opened in the mid-90's. While this prison is not a famous as Supermax, which is for federal prisoners, it had a lot of the same features - 23 hour lockdown, concrete furniture, pods so that even if you get out of your cell you are still locked down, medical care inside the pods so that if you hurt yourself, you are still locked down, an exercise room with a stool and a bar on the wall. Even the windows were set up so that once in your cell, there is no direct line of sight to another inmate. Of course, this prison was set up to hold the worst in the state, but to eventually move them out to lower security if they showed signs of improvement.

I'm sure that Supermax is all these things and more, so it may not be long before Moussaoui starts wishing that the jury gave him death so he could move on to his 72 virgins. Hopefully, for the families of the 9/11 victims, they can take some comfort in the knowledge that he is rotting away on the high plains of Colorado.

UPDATE: Apparently, his mama agrees:
"adding that the life sentence imposed for his role in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks was worse than the death penalty.

"Now he is going to die in little doses," she said. "He is going to live like a rat in a hole. What for? They are so cruel, they were wrong to want his head. They should have gone all the way to the end if they were capable.""