Leonie M. Brinkema, who sentenced 9-11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui to life in prison, will receive the 2008 Brody Award Sunday, April 6.

Brinkema, a U.S. District Court judge for the Eastern District of Virginia, will deliver the Brody address at 7:30 p.m. in Ostrove Auditorium of the Diamond Building. The public is invited.

In 1993 Brinkema was nominated by President Clinton for her current position. She has presided over major cases including ruling in favor of the Washington Post and former Scientologist Arnie Lerma in a lawsuit filed by the Church of Scientology.

She sentenced truck driver and al-Qaida operative Iyman Faris to 20 years in prison for providing material support in a case involving an attempt to destroy the Brooklyn Bridge. In 2006, as she sentenced Moussaoui, she said, “You came here to be a martyr and die in a great big bang of glory, but to paraphrase the poet T.S. Eliot, instead you will die with a whimper.”

The Morton A. Brody Distinguished Judicial Service Award was created in memory of the Morton Brody, a U.S. District judge who died in 2000. Brody, a Waterville resident, taught courses at Colby on the judicial system, was the husband of Associate Dean of Admissions Judith Brody ’58 and was a longtime friend of the college. This biennial event honors an outstanding federal or state judge who embodies the same qualities of integrity, compassion, humanity and judicial craftsmanship as Judge Brody exhibited throughout his life.

A panel discussion titled The Conflict Between Protected Civil Liberties and Government Intrusion in a Time of Terrorist Threats will take place at 3:30 p.m., also in Ostrove Auditorium. Panelists are ABC News Legal Correspondent Jan Crawford Greenburg, University of Maine professor James Friedman, and U.S. District Judge for the Central District of California Margaret Morrow.

Chief Judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Maine George Z. Singal will moderate.

For her safety, no photographs of Brinkema will be permitted.