Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, is shown in July 2009

The trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four others even as conspirators in the 9 / 11 attacks in the Southern District of New York – Manhattan covers that – likely to have significant challenges for the United States represent.

The Southern District is among the countries with more experience in the U.S. are looking into the terrorists, but a high priority when so close to the epicenter of the emblematic 9 / 11, not only on important questions of safety – both for cutting and officials involved in the process – but will also consider, such as address, which is probably a very large number of classified evidence that the prosecution want to present.

“KSM” has become well known, and his four co-defendants described themselves as “a terrorist to the bone” in an appearance before a military commission at Guantanamo March and referred to his alleged involvement in the attacks as a “badge of honor.” But the fact that Muhammad was prolonged torture is likely to be subjected to the thorny issue of reopening, how much of what people have said that they can trust who has not been tainted by torture.

The case is certain that the US-established judiciary to deal with a variety of difficult legal issues related to programs to combat terrorism after the attacks in 2001 lives, including harsh interrogation techniques once used in some of the possible suspects in CIA custody in connection. The most serious, which was U-boat – or simulated drowning – 183 times using Mohammed in 2003, before the practice was banned.

Jury selection is likely to be another very complex issue. Potential jurors would have to go through what is known as voir dire examination. According to the manual of the jury for the Southern District of potential jurors were asked whether it is “a personal interest in the case, or know there is no compelling reason why it can not give an impartial verdict.”

Basically, there are other issues to determine “whether the members of the Committee a prejudice or a feeling that they can influence in rendering a verdict.” The manual continues: “Each juror knowledge of the case should explain this to the judge.”

The judge is also likely to have to do their hands full when appearance of Mohammed in a military commission in 2008 was to judge. The suspects 9 / 11 brain recites verses from the Koran, he denounced George Bush for his “War of the Crusaders,” describing it as an inquisition, “in which he had been tortured, and declared its desire for a” martyr. ”

Muhammad, the judge argued during the reading of the charges, refused a lawyer by a court that is not ruled by Sharia law to accept, described the U.S. constitition – guaranteed under which the federal court system – as “bad” and said that the defense.

Since he was not prepared to defend itself in accordance with U.S. law, a court should appoint a lawyer to defend him, which is almost certainly feel obliged to classified evidence and observations obtained under torture, challenge, and the jury question.

The probability that the process is to review these issues long been emphasized by President Barack Obama. “I am absolutely convinced that is subject to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the highest standards of justice. The American people will insist on it. My Government will insist,” he said.

Obama’s remarks follow a ban on the use of rumors and confessions obtained under torture in the military awarded contracts – the movement that also on the civil process.

Another unresolved issue is whether people are sentenced to death in the federal court system, as they would if they had been tried by military commission. So far, the Justice Department has not answered this question. The government already has a Guantanamo detainee, Ahmed Ghailani, sent to New York to court, but chose not to seek death penalty in this case. Arrested in the last major al-Qaida suspects in that court in 2001, but not prosecutors do not try it for some of the defendants.

D.C. sniper executed by lethal injection

John Allen Muhammad, the sniper who kept the Washington region for three weeks paralyzed with fear when he runs, and an accomplice shot and killed young people randomly at night by lethal injection.

Mr. Muhammad, a man who led what many agencies implementing the law is one of the worst crimes in U.S. history, died in the death chamber in Virginia, while considered members of their victims . Unlike his victims, he knew when and how he would die.

Mr. Muhammad and fellow Jamaican immigrant Lee Boyd Malvo, then 17, killed 10 people in the Washington area is linked to a horrific slaughter in October 2002, were also shot in several other states.

The authorities accompanied Mr. Muhammad, in jeans and sandals, in a small room at the Greenville Correctional Center, and tied to a cross-shaped table. He was injected with a series of lethal drugs begin at 9:06 pm and was pronounced dead at 9:11 pm

Although he maintained his innocence to the end, ignoring Mr. Muhammad, 48, an application for a closing statement. Virginia Department of Corrections, Larry Traylor, spokesman last night, Muhammad ordered a last meal, but asked that details not be made public. He refused to meet with a counselor, but he has to spend time with members of his immediate family in her last hours.

Mr. Muhammad showed no emotion at the death chamber. When the curtain opened, her head tilted to the right, and his eyes were closed. Asked if he meant something, he did not answer.

Fear injected with a single .223 caliber sniper rifle and a Chevrolet sedan once the authorities have called a “Killing Machine”, said Mr. Muhammad and Malvo in the routine of his victims were conducted as were taken: pumping gas, shopping – walking to school, mowing the lawn, go to a restaurant. Mr. Malvo is serving a life sentence without parole.

The killings began with an explanation. As the snipers left cryptic notes and phone messages asking for $ 10 million, were residents of Washington, like millions of white vans and other delusions that the authorities were diverted to the wrong hunt.

The recordings were Washingtonians to change its daily rhythm. People hide in the zigzagging through parking lots and instructed their children in cars, while gas stations. Schools canceled recess and football games. The images were so terrible, because they are so random.

At the end of Mr. Muhammad and Mr. Malvo were identified through a fingerprint of an Alabama shooting left one of the notes, the sniper left behind call. The researchers put the robbery along with Mr. Muhammad to buy the dark blue Chevy in New Jersey, a Bushmaster rifle in the state of Washington and a warning of a truck driver, noticed a whim a rest stop Maryland highway.

Despite tens of hundreds of witnesses and evidence – the amount directly to Mr. Muhammad and Mr. Malvo and led to the conviction for capital murder – The police authorities have not specified a powerful motive for the shooting and can not be say, of course, to explicitly fired the fatal shots.

Mr. Muhammad ex-wife, who with their children in suburban Maryland, where many of the shots, there was speculation that he is to frighten or even kill, she was alive.

Tax laws against untested Virginia terrorism, seeking to invoke a belief, even if they could prove that the two suspects fired the gun.

In the 2003 study in Virginia Beach, Muhammad represented himself as the first two days, so walk, but weight the points to the fact that no one saw him fire a single bullet. His lawyers took over later, but ultimately, the jury found him guilty and sentenced him to death.

Mr. Muhammad was sentenced to death by a single murder – on 9 October 2002 sniper killing of Dean Harold Meyers of Gaithersburg, Md., who was killed shortly after 8 pm, while gas is pumped into her Mazda into a Sunoco station outside Manassas.

Federal authorities tried, he could have Mr. Muhammad in one of the jurisdictions that are killed by a sniper, he chose the case because there was Prince William Meyers Commonwealth Attorney Paul B. Ebert, a star turn in capital cases – had sent a dozen people on death row in Virginia – Virginia, and was known for his quick appeal.

The decision has paid off. Only six years after the conviction of Mr. Muhammad, was sentenced to death after exhausted all legal options. The Supreme Court denied his latest request for a stay Monday, Virginia, and Democratic Gov. Tim Kaine rejected a clemency petition yesterday.

Mr. Ebert, the prosecutor who had never witnessed an execution before last night, decided to go to Mr. Muhammad.

Mr. Muhammad appeals lawyers have long argued that his client is mentally ill, and he was unable to represent themselves and are perhaps even in court. They complained of Virginia haste in implementing it.