Sadaam Executed. Should We Care?
posted by Dan Filler
I think a lot about capital punishment, but I still haven’t figured out what to think about the (apparently completed) execution of Sadaam Hussein. Although I am deeply troubled by the use of capital punishment in the United States, and have questions whether any system can consistently offer the assurances of fairness and accuracy commensurate with the sanction, I do not oppose the death penalty categorically. If the death penalty is appropriate, it seems to me that one must feel confident that the target is actually guilty, that he received a fair trial, and that he is culpable at the highest moral and practical level for the most serious crimes. When it comes to Sadaam, there is little doubt (as far as I can tell) that he is guilty of facilitiating mass killings. I don’t know whether he received a fair trial and I don’t know enough about him personally to know whether he is morally culpable on an individual level – although he doesn’t appear to have much claim to most of the mitigators surfacing in a typical U.S. capital sentencing. At the end of the day, I don’t have much sympathy for the guy.
So should I care if he is executed? Perhaps I should not only care, but be pleased. On some level, this sentence – which unlike most death sentences in the U.S., will actually be noticed both by the people we hope to reassure and those we hope to deter – communicates a fair amount about society’s view of his conduct. In that sense, this outcome is probably better than having troops kill him while he was huddled in a bunker. And it is surely better for the U.S. that he be executed after an Iraqi trial, and by Iraqis, rather than through a U.S. military tribunal.
Maybe I shouldn’t care, even if the penalty is wrong because these sanctions aren’t ours to distribute. But that can’t be quite right, since the current Iraqi regime is (at least partially) an American creation. And if the death penalty is unjustifiable murder, if I truly believed that to be true in all cases, I would have to be upset and angry, and probably feel compelled to take at least some small action in opposition.
I can’t quite get to the bottom of my own emotions. The process seems like slow motion, a bit, though it is far faster than any American death penalty. (Isn’t that oxymoronic? The American process is so slow that it doesn’t even look like motion. In the end, the execution feels little different from a premeditated killing precisely because it is not part of a continuing, visible, inevitable process that leads directly to execution. Here, however, the process is swift enough that we can watch it unfold slowly before our eyes.) I fear that it will have negative political repercussions. I fear that it will reopen wounds that should stay closed, or close wounds that demand further inspection and investigation. I fear that the comfortable use of death in this case will reassure some people that the death penalty is appropriate for more mundane crimes.
But I don’t feel much pity. And I don’t feel a sense of injustice. So in some awful sense, I don’t care much at all. And there’s the rub. I deeply dislike the idea that the intentional killing of another human being would not generate deep discomfort in me. I seem to have found out why I don’t oppose the death penalty categorically. But I’m not sure I’m proud of the insight.
December 30, 2006 at 12:00 am
Posted in: Capital Punishment, Criminal Law, International & Comparative Law
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Responses (4)
Jim Graves - December 30, 2006 at 1:44 am
Any time someone is executed, we should care. But it seems as if we’re expected to care extra fervently about executing Saddam. It’s hard for me to do so, partly because he never did anything to me or anyone I know, and partly because he has long been neutralized. A madman with weapons of mass destruction who kills his country’s people is a threat. Put him in court, scruffy and dazed and ranting endlessly, and he’s merely pathetic. What should we feel when that sad thing is executed? Vindication? Relief? Satisfaction? Or something closer to pity?
I think there’s another reason we’re expected to care. Saddam Hussein has been Osama bin Laden’s stand-in ever since the buildup to the Iraq war. We couldn’t track down bin Laden in the mountains of Afghanistan or Pakistan (without creating a mess that would have made Iraq look like a garden party). So, frustrated, we turned around and whipped Saddam instead. It’s hard not to wonder if people will (or are supposed to) treat this as a substitute execution. It looks increasingly unlikely we’ll ever catch Osama or bring him to justice (or revenge), but at least we could kill someone.
Hooray, a tyrant is dead! Perhaps if we close our eyes and pretend really hard, we can convince ourselves it was someone who had anything at all to do with 9/11.
LM - December 30, 2006 at 10:09 am
Jim brings up a good point, one which I had almost forgotten (for shame).
On another note, I think it’s easy for us to become emotionally detached from topics that are not part of our everyday reality. We can easily conjecture about capital punishment, or try to imagine what it’s like to execute someone, because we have the benefit of being able to create our own reality using our imagination. We can soften the truth just enough so that the idea of killing someone becomes not too unpalatable.
But to actually witness an execution … it kind of shakes the conscience a little more vigorously, and brings home reality. This video, which depicts the moments before Saddam’s execution (but not the act itself), brings reality pretty close to home: http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=38e1076b19 .
Scott Vernon - January 6, 2007 at 6:58 pm
Every time America uses the death penalty a little more of its moral integrity is eroded.
Land of the free or the disadvantaged? You’re much more likely to be executed if you are hispanic or black.
Over the last period most americans should hang their heads in shame (excuse the non-intended pun).
What the US brings to the world, especially those of us in Europe, is uncertainty and hatred. How can we side with you when your solution to everything is death to those who don’t toe the line?!
If ever there were evil in the White House it is the, apparently, Born Again GW Bush.
You guys put him there and it is, therefore, your civil obligation to remove him before he does more harm to the world.
I used to like americans (heck my cousins llive in the Carolinas and California) , but you know what? Since Sadaams exection now I truly understand why you, as a nation, are detested all over the world.
By the way I’m not some raghead muslim fundamentalist. I’m 100% Irish and proud of the liberty and rights my country affords me.
Think about that as you bow your head down to sleep tonight.
If you are kidnapped or shot or terroised anywhere in the world in the next few years, who should shed a tear for you?
You earned it.
Fred - January 13, 2007 at 2:01 pm
WOW Hey lets remove the terrorist that are harming the world TOO!!!!!!!!!!! Why is it ok for a Muslim to blow up schools, churches, nightclubs, planes, buildings, ships, trains and on and on. But if BUSH wants to stop it, he is wrong. You must be terroist lovers along with the Democrats. Don’t worry you will get to have your abortions and Gay Marriages. Which reminds me. 3000 solier died in Iraq 70% by Iranian IED’s and paid terrorist insurgents.(in over 4 years) while liberal baby killing democrats are responsible for close to 50,000,000 dead babies! But thats ok they can’t fight back-so you guys are really tough guys! But don’t worry you can poke each other in your BUTTS and forget about that while you spread AIDS (WHICH KILLS MILLIONS)Everyday 6000 children are orphaned because of aids. But thats what you guys are for. BAD BUSH defending our country against Muslim Extremists that are trying to take over the world. SHAME ON HIM! Well you will be happy to know that we know already have one goverment official that is a Muslim who swore in on the KORA (The very book that tell them to kill everyone that is not a Muslim! Does seperation from church and state apply here too?? or should a go out and buy me a nice mat to kneel on and bow down to Mecca? Het and Obama has Muslim roots! BAD BUSH doesn’t Bush know we want to become Muslim? Well Moron U.S. citizen’s seem to back the muslim terrosts and go agains our own country- WHY?????? The news media does the most backing of the terrorist. I bet they are owned by Iran. Well not to worry, the president of Iran is telling his people “There will be a world without the U.S.A. and with their nukes, it should not be too long. But hey thats what America wants now. They did not want that during the last two elections. FUNNY Bush stayed the samebut the people that voted for him changed. If they wanted a Muslim President they should have voted for one in the first place. Don’t blame Bush if you voted for the wrong guy blame youself! He has not changed and is the same as what you voted for. Now that you changed your mind It’s too late or law says he gets for years because YOU voted for him! It’s YOUR FAULT you should be made at yourself. Until the next election except the choice you made and back it up, instead of being brainwashed by a Democratic, Terrorist loving, Baby killing, Butt poking NEWS MEDIA!!!!!!!!!
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