Judges stops Moussaoui case after feds coach witnesses

Calling it the "most egregious violation" of witness rules she has ever seen, the judge in Zacarias Moussaoui's sentencing hearing ordered a recess after learning federal prosecutors had coached four witnesses.

The AP reports Judge Leonie Brinkema is considering taking the death penalty of the table for Moussaoui, whom prosecutors say should die for failing to warn the government of the 9/11 attacks.

The stunning development came at the opening of the fifth day of the trial as the government had informed the judge and the defense over the weekend that a lawyer for the Federal Aviation Administration had coached four government FAA witnesses in violation of the rule set by U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema. The rule was that no witness should hear trial testimony in advance.

"This is the second significant error by the government affecting the constitutional rights of the defendant and the criminal justice system in this country in the context of a death case," Brinkema told lawyers in the case outside the presence of the jury.

Previously, prosecutors ran afoul of the judge for suggesting that Moussaoui had a responsibility to confess his terrorist ties to the government. Brinkema called it "shaky legal ground" and told the feds she knew of no precedent in which a failure to act was considered a capital offense.

That claim is, essentially, the prosecution's theory as to why Moussaoui, the so-called "20th" hijacker on 9/11, should receive the death penalty. The judge's remark raises the question as to why she has allowed the sentencing procedure to go on as long as it has on this premise.