Comments on: Europeans Support Verdict, But Not Sentence

By: Mark

Mark — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 15:27:30 +0000

Well, I respect your opposition; it's one of those personal issues that generally can't be argued successfully one way or the other. Even Hitchens is opposed to killing Saddam because of death penalty opposition...

By: bebere

bebere — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 15:02:51 +0000

I’m against the death penalty for the same reason as Aaron: it can’t be taken back if the convicted/executed turns out to be innocent.

In Saddam’s case, however, I’m ambivalent: no one deserves this punishment more richly than he does, but I’m also worried that it might confer some sort of “martyr” status on him.

By: Aaron

Aaron — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 23:47:05 +0000

I’m generally against the death penalty, just because if their is a wrongful conviction the mistake cannot be corrected as a life term can.

But I would say that I prefer the Israeli view on execution: it should be used only in the most extreme circumstances. For example, the only execution to occur in Israel was that of Adolf Eichmann, the “mastermind behind the Holocaust.” Saddam fits these criteria.

By: too many steves

too many steves — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 21:39:58 +0000

There are principled arguments to be made for and against the death penalty. I, myself, am rather ambivalent on the topic, most of the time. Many death penalty cases strike me as nothing more than state sanctioned revenge rather than justice. But with Saddam, and given the nature of his crimes, I think justice demands that he be executed.