Department of Justice, U.S.

Prosecuting Terrorists

Efforts to prosecute terrorists have several goals. A conviction means the terrorist remains imprisoned and is thus unable to commit further attacks. It can also have a deterrent effect, for the threat of imprisonment may keep others from committing terrorist acts. Indictments, meanwhile, alert terrorists that they are wanted, which may encourage them to go into hiding and curtail future terrorist activities. The general publicity surrounding a trial can also stir public support for counterterrorism initiatives and influence other governments to follow suit.

In many cases, however, these supposed deterrents and checks on action do not work. For the suicide bombers of the most recent era of terrorism, issues of conviction and deterrence are irrelevant. Purported terrorists may actually seek prosecution and capital punishment as a path to martyrdom. When Zacarias Moussaoui, the alleged “19th hijacker” from the 9/11 attacks, was tried in 2002, he asked to plead guilty so he could receive a death sentence. In many cases, the prosecutions of the “underlings” who commit terrorist acts leave the masterminds, like Osama bin Laden, at large for years. One of the primary difficulties in bringing terrorists to justice, however, lies in the tensions between law enforcement and national security. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), under the auspices of the DOJ, is expected to conduct investigations and make arrests that will hold up under appeal. This means minimizing the possibility of terrorists going free because of poorly executed procedures, such as an illegal search and seizure or a failure to read a suspect his or her Miranda rights. Meanwhile, intelligence agencies, such as the CIA are unlikely to offer evidence that might jeopardize sources or intelligence strategies, because whatever is uncovered in a trial becomes a matter of public record. Once arrests are made, however, prosecution becomes the highest priority for the DOJ.

Prior to the 9/11 attacks, the United States successfully tried terrorists and their accomplices using the civilian judicial system. Timothy McVeigh was convicted in U.S. federal court for the 1995 Oklahoma City bombings, and he was put to death in 2001. Eric Robert Rudolph, who detonated bombs at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta and at two abortion clinics, was convicted of murder and is serving two life sentences at the “supermax” federal prison in Colorado. The foiled “shoe bomber,” Richard Reid, is confined to the same facility.

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