Analysis By Justin Webb BBC News, Washington

The jury took a slow, systematic approach to reaching a verdict

It is a question to which there is no certain answer, but one which hovers at the backs of the minds of many Americans.

Are the people of this nation - ordinary Americans, parents, workers, voters, jurors - more sophisticated than their political leaders?

There is an argument for suggesting that they are.

In the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui, after all, the prosecution case relied heavily on emotion, an appeal to visceral instincts - to gain revenge for damage done and to gain that revenge from a man who plainly enjoyed the pain of innocent civilians, even children.

For some Americans the trial result was what is known in these parts as a "no-brainer".

But it has been widely noted here that the jury simply used its brain: individual jurors remained calm while the 24-hour news channels whipped themselves into a frenzy.

In the end at least three jurors decided they had not seen any real evidence linking Moussaoui to the terrorist attacks.

It could be read as another example of how surprising this nation can be, how unpredictable the results of freedom often are.

After all, Moussaoui himself did not exactly ingratiate himself with the jurors, and the panel was not convinced that he was mad or that he wanted to die.

They simply looked at the cold hard facts presented to them and decided they did not add up.

Legal boundaries

Not everyone is pleased.

One of the most perceptive and influential newspaper columnists in the US, the former Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan, told her readers today that this was not higher compassion but a dizzy failure of nerve.

It feels dainty, she wrote, in a way that speaks not of gentleness but fear.

Ms Noonan's concern - and it is a real one - is that the case has implications for the wider war on terror.

Can the US summon up the mental toughness, and perhaps more important even than that, the guts, to fight this war, to bring devastation to the enemy rather than giving out prison sentences after four-year trials?

Moussaoui has left the public arena forever but the debate about this trial is only just beginning.

It will speak volumes about how Americans want their leaders to prosecute the war on terror.

It is their war, waged in their name.