Althouse: "You came here to be a martyr in a great big bang of glory... instead you will die with a whimper."

May 4, 2006

"You came here to be a martyr in a great big bang of glory... instead you will die with a whimper."

Judge Leonie Brinkema puts Moussaoui in his place with an allusion to "The Hollow Men."

UPDATE: Moussaoui's mother seems to think life imprisonment is worse: "He's going to spend his life in a hole like a rat. It's even worse than dying."

10 comments:

Bissage said...: Wait a minute. You mean she didn't sentence him to be raped and shanked? And here I thought for sure she was one of yesterday's spiteful commentators!; 5/4/06, 11:17 AM
Icepick said...: Moussaoui is most likely going to be locked up in a supermax prison.

He will have very little contact with any humans, and next to none with other prisoners. He will be locked in an isolation cell 23 hours a day. I remember hearing at some point that inmates in these prisons tend to go insane because of lack of stimuli. Although from what I've read he will probably have a TV in the Colorado prison, so maybe he won't totally go insane.

Rape, murder and all the rest of it will never happen to him. Still, he will be doing the hardest of hard time.

Surely Dante described something like this, but I am not familiar enough with his work to think of it. The closest thing I can think of is to imagine the scene in Ben-Hur with Judea's mother and sister in a dungeon cell. That's what he's facing, except that it will be clean, well lit, and disease free.; 5/4/06, 12:13 PM
Icepick said...: Wikipedia to the rescue. Here's a description of The United States Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility (ADX) in Florence, Colorado. Also note the sections on the effects these prisons have on the prisoners, and the controversies surrounding these types of prisons.

We've actually given him the worst possible sentence we could give him. And I now recognize that his situation will actually be very close to this. We've done our worst.; 5/4/06, 12:23 PM
Laura Reynolds said...: A long time to think about the crap he's gonna hear when he gets to heaven. "Dude, you blew it, no martydom, no virgins, just a loser, and you let that woman tell you off."; 5/4/06, 12:56 PM
paul a'barge said...: I hate to leave it to someone else to capture my thoughts, but National Review had this to say, and I think it's important:
link: http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=OWVhMThiNGExZTRhZTY3ZTc3OTk5NTQ3ZGExYjI3NmY=

I recommend it highly for your consideration.; 5/4/06, 1:21 PM
bearbee said...: Life without cable tv is cruel and unusual punishment. He should be allowed Shalom America........; 5/4/06, 2:19 PM
Smilin' Jack said...: Moanique said...
Good for Judge Brinkema.

If he gets cable TV let's hope that all he gets to watch is Fox News.

No, make it 24-hour Christian fundamentalist televangelism, turned up really loud, like they did to Lecter in Silence of the Lambs.; 5/4/06, 3:38 PM
Ann Althouse said...: Hi, Valerie. Thanks for coming by and commenting. I agree with you.; 5/4/06, 10:00 PM
Anonymous said...: I think America won.

Absolutely!

I think Bush lost. I think Bush was bested by Moussaoui who was bested by the jury.; 5/4/06, 11:30 PM
Tom T. said...: Note that Moussaoui's mother spent enough time in this country to learn that the way to reach the American public is to blame the French:

Moussaoui's Mother Blames Outcome on French Passivity; 5/5/06, 7:08 AM