WASHINGTON (AP) — Sept. 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui was spared the death penalty because he had only a "minor" role in the terror attacks, a juror in Moussaoui's death penalty trial told The Washington Post.

The juror, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said "He wasn't necessarily part of the 9/11 operation."

The juror, quoted in Friday's editions, said the panel decided to spare the admitted al-Qaida member, who was in jail at the time of the attacks, because he did not kill anyone on Sept. 11, 2001.

The juror voted to send Moussaoui to jail for life, but told the Post the defendant was a "despicable character."

Still, the juror said, "His role in 9/11 was actually minor."

Capping four years of legal maneuvering and a two-month trial, U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema sentenced the unrepentant 37-year-old Frenchman to six life sentences. She told him Thursday he would "die with a whimper," isolated from the world and not in the glory of martyrdom.

Moussaoui will spend the rest of his life in America's strictest prison.

Special rules at the federal super maximum-security prison in Florence, Colo., where Brinkema sent Moussaoui, will bar the voluble if ineffective terrorist from contact with the outside world.