ALEXANDRIA, Va. – A defense psychologist yesterday told the jury considering whether to sentence Zacarias Moussaoui to death that the defendant is a paranoid schizophrenic who holds firmly to the delusions that President Bush will soon set him free and that his court-appointed lawyers are engaged in a plot to kill him.
Dr. Xavier Amador testified about an encounter with Moussaoui last April in the holding cell of the courthouse in which the trial is taking place. He said Moussaoui repeatedly spat water on him and exhibited classic symptoms of schizophrenia, including sudden shifts in his views accompanied by denials that he had only moments earlier held the opposite views.
Moussaoui has pleaded guilty to conspiracy in connection with the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
New York Times News Service
Korean War veteran among 11 pardoned
WASHINGTON – Court-martialed a half-century ago over $50, George Anderson Glenn was among 11 people pardoned yesterday by President Bush.
Glenn was a 19-year-old Army private when he accepted the money to ride herd on a shipment of goods destined for the black market in South Korea.
“It's sort of like a big stone been taken off my shoulders,” Glenn, now 69, said in a telephone interview from his home in Alexandria, Ala., after he received word he had been pardoned.
Bush has issued 82 pardons and sentence commutations during 63 months in office, mainly to allow people who committed relatively minor offenses and served their sentences long ago to clear their names.
Associated Press
41 felons mistakenly released in Michigan
LANSING, Mich. – Michigan prison officials have found 41 recent cases of felons accused of violating their paroles mistakenly being released because they didn't get a hearing within 45 days of their arrest, officials said yesterday.
One of those released was Patrick Alan Selepak, who is now charged with killing three people after he was wrongly freed.
Corrections Department Director Patricia Caruso told the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday that systemic and individual errors led to the releases.
Associated Press
White House stands by passport mandate
WASHINGTON – The Bush administration said yesterday that it still plans to require passports from all foreigners entering the United States by the end of next year, despite calls for a delay by some Republicans worried about strained relations with Canada.
At issue is a 2004 law, being phased in over three years, to tighten U.S. borders against suspected terrorists and other criminals.
Associated Press
