[JURIST] The US Supreme Court Monday declined to hear an appeal from alleged "20th hijacker" Zacarias Moussaoui [JURIST Newsmaker news archive], the only person formally charged by the US government with criminal complicity in the September 11 terror attacks. Moussaoui had challenged a US Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal ruling [PDF] that the government could insist on the death penalty in the case and could deny Moussaoui direct access to possible exculpatory evidence that might be provided by other high-value terror suspects in US custody. The holding clears the way for Moussaoui's trial in the US Eastern District of Virginia [Moussaoui case materials].

According to Goldstein & Howe's SCOTUSblog, the Court made no new certiorari grants in its Monday order list [not yet available online].