After a week-long period of deliberation, a jury in the United States ruled on Wednesday that the French national Zacarias Moussaoui will spend the rest of his life in a high security prison instead of being executed for his role in the Sept. 11, 2001 al-Qaida attacks on New York and Washington that killed nearly 3,000 people.

Moussaoui, who never showed remorse for his apparently minor role in the 9/11 plot and mocked the victims of the attacks, stayed true to his hateful demeanor to the end by taunting the courtroom after the verdict was read. "America, you lost … I won," he said as he clapped his hands and was led away.

The decision brings to a close the two-month trial of the only person charged in America in connection with the 9/11 suicide hijackings. The jury of nine men and three women rejected the US government's plea for the death penalty even though Moussaoui had already been found responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks by concealing the al-Qaida plot from federal agents after he was arrested in August 2001 on immigration violations.

"It was obvious that they thought his role in 9/11 was not very great and that played a significant role in their decision," Moussaoui's defense lawyer, Gerald Zerkin, said according to the Associated Press.

But the 37-year-old man of Moroccan descent will now be denied the chance to become a martyr for the Islamic terrorist network al-Qaida. Instead he will be confided to cell in a special US federal prison entirely cut off from the outside world  for the rest of his life -- a punishment many of the family members of 9/11 victims found fitting.

Better to let him live than become a martyr

"I think it's a good decision," Monica Gabrielle, whose husband Richard died in the World Trade Center in New York, told the Associated Press. "First of all, he had nothing to do with the events that occurred on 9/11. To offer the death penalty because he lied to the FBI -- there'd be a lot of people on death row."

Maureen Santora, whose 23-year-old son Christopher was one of 343 New York City firefighters killed when the World Trade Center collapsed, came to watch the jury's decision. She agreed it was right not to execute Moussaoui. "I think life (imprisonment) is worse. He won't be a martyr now. My hope is that he is forgotten, and that once this trial is over no one will remember his name," she said.

But many Americans -- including former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani -- expressed their anger and disappointment that he will avoid the death penalty. "I was very disappointed when I heard the verdict, Giuliani said at a press conference Wednesday evening. "At the same time, I was in awe of our system," which showed the United States was "a nation of laws."

Patricia Reilly, whose sister Lorraine Lee died in the 9/11 attacks was less understanding of the American justice system. She was angered by the jury's decision to spare Moussaoui. "I feel very much let down by this country," Reilly told the Associated Press. "I guess in this country you can kill 3,000 people and not pay with your life. I believe he's going to go to jail and start converting other people to his distorted view of Islam."