It's all over the news: '"Chemical Ali" Executed in Iraq', after having been sentenced to death four times in a row for crimes against humanity perpetrated between 1988 and 1999.
I have read the articles available @ Aljazeera and also @ BBC, complete with some photographs and videos. The crimes he was sentenced for are disgusting in infinite ways, so revolting indeed no punishment seems sufficient. And yet I cannot bring myself to accept the death penalty, not even in an extreme case like this when it seems obvious to me that such an individual does not deserve to live.
But the 'power of the law' -- the rule of law -- should never ever be allowed to serve as a means to an end that constitutes a perversion of its own design, its ultimate finality. Legal murder is no better than murder, legally taking a life is debasing the very notion of justice and the rule of law.
I have read the articles available @ Aljazeera and also @ BBC, complete with some photographs and videos. The crimes he was sentenced for are disgusting in infinite ways, so revolting indeed no punishment seems sufficient. And yet I cannot bring myself to accept the death penalty, not even in an extreme case like this when it seems obvious to me that such an individual does not deserve to live.
But the 'power of the law' -- the rule of law -- should never ever be allowed to serve as a means to an end that constitutes a perversion of its own design, its ultimate finality. Legal murder is no better than murder, legally taking a life is debasing the very notion of justice and the rule of law.
For the law cannot commit the very crime that it seeks to punish.
No comments:
Post a Comment