Jonah’s right. In the U.S., the penalty, for example, for providing material support to terrorists is “not more than 15 years,” except “if the death of any person results” in which case the defendant “shall be imprisoned for any term of years or for life.” (18 U.S.C. Sec. 2339A.) And if one is found to be a member of a conspiracy — not just a terrorist or bombing conspiracy but, say, a racketeering or narcotics conspiracy– life-imprisonment is the potential penalty if the conspiracy has resulted in a murder. (I don’t think you can get the death-penalty for conspiracy; my recollection is you have to be guilty of the substantive crime that results in murder.)

It’s very different in Europe, at least outside the UK. Remember to two Germans who were accused of complicity in the 9/11 attacks? They were looking at a maximum 15-year sentence despite close to 3000 homicides.

Lynne Stewart (the Blind Sheikh’s lawyer) only got 28 months for material support to terrorism — but it’s important to remember that no one was alleged to have been killed in connection with that crime (and the government asked for 30 years, indicative of the gravity of the offense – the judge imposed a very weak sentence).

It’s almost inconceivable, in a case where victims have been killed, that a U.S. court would sentence a defendant convicted of the conspiring or supporting such murders to anything less than 30 or 40 years, and usually it will be life.