I am opposed to all forms of capital punishment, but I suppose the world demanded the death of Saadam. And so it had to occur.

But why put him to death? Yes, he deserved it. No doubt in my mind, or anybody else's mind. But does that make us any better by our executing him? Are we just like him, or do we believe in mercy? Yes, Saadam showed no mercy to his enemies. Does that mean that we, who hold ourselves to a better moral standard than Saadam, need also to show no mercy? Do two wrongs make a right? Doesn't the bible quote God as saying, "Vengeance is mine?"

We also argue that since the death penalty itself does not deter tyrants and mass murderers, why have it at all? It certainly has not deterred our own mass-murdering tyrant, George W. Bush. It did not deter Slobodan Milosovic, Joseph Stalin, or Adolph Hitler. So whom does it really deter?

One might argue that keeping Saadam alive in prison might move his supporters to try kidnapping Americans so as to try to bargain for his release. But that isn't going to happen. Instead, we put him to death so he now is a martyr to the Sunni Baathists, spurring them on to further violence and ethnic hatred against the Shia and Americans.

I believe nobody benefits from capital punishment. Not the victims, not the family of the murderer, not his executioner, not the witnesses to the execution, not his jury, nor his judge at trial. All involved are ultimately made less human by the act of execution itself.

Sander Bellman, 2006 ECDA Board Chair

 

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