"We demand the maximum punishment for Saddam, (his half-brother) Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti and (former vice president) Taha Yassin Ramadan," Jaafar al-Mussawi said in court as he rested the prosecution case.
He said Saddam showed "no mercy" in the killings of women and children in a crackdown against Shi'ites in the village of Dujail in 1982.
"The prosecution asks for the harshest penalty against them, because they spread corruption on earth, they showed no mercy even for the old, for women or for children, and even the trees were not safe from their oppression," he said.
"The law calls for the death penalty and this is what we ask be implemented."
Mr al-Moussawi asked for lenient sentences for three of the lower-level defendants -- Abdullah Kazim Ruwayyid, his son Mizhar
Ruwayyid and Ali Dayih -- saying they committed their "acts to carry out orders issued by their superiors".
He asked for the release of another defendant, Mohammed Azawi Ali, saying the evidence was not sufficient against him.
After a three-week break, the defence will be next to sum up its case, then a panel of judges begin weighing the fate of Saddam and his seven co-defendants.
Verdicts are expected in late September or early October.
Lawyers representing the victims of the massacre told the court that Saddam Hussein's half-brother and former intelligence chief personally tortured prisoners and sent families to die in the desert.
Saddam, his half-brother and co-accused Barzan al-Tikriti face charges for their roles in the killing of 148 Shi'ites in Dujail in 1982 after Saddam escaped an assassination attempt against him in the village.
Saddam has admitted he ordered trials that led to executions of Dujail villagers, but said it was his legal right to do so because he was the head of state at a time of war with neighbouring Iran.