Judgement

Today, Saddam Hussein was convicted and sentenced to death by hanging for the deaths of 148 people in a massacre in 1982. (All references are from the Yahoo article, which can be found here.) As I read the opening line of the article, my heart tightened and I felt sudden, very unexpected compassion for the former dictator. I can't imagine being sentenced to death. Even worse, being sentenced to death by hanging. How horrible. I think that I believe in the death penalty. I thought that I was certain that I believed in the death penalty. But now, I think that I believe in it. Somehow, the prospect of lethal injection "softens" the severity of the death penalty for me. Somehow, when I'm confronted by the fact that in some places the death penalty is administered by hanging, I have trouble with it. I think this tells me that I am not immune to violence, to suffering, that I do not wish pain inflicted on others. For that I am glad.

And then I read on. And I felt some kind of twisted respect for Saddam, when he suggested that because he alone was in charge, he alone should be tried. I don't agree with that, but I can almost find it admirable that he tried to save his co-defendants. Who is this man? This man who committed such atrocities, but would sacrifice himself to save the others. This man who divided a nation along religious lines, but according to his defense attorney, "called on Iraqis to reject sectarian violence and refrain from revenge against U.S. forces." This man, who, if his appeal is lost, will hang within thirty days after losing the appeal.

Don't misunderstand. I don't think that Saddam is innocent. I don't think that he shouldn't be punished. He and his regime committed acts of violence, horrible atrocities that I cannot imagine. Against people. Against living, breathing, fellow human creatures. Against their neighbors. Based on the documentation of his own government, he is clearly guilty of crimes against humanity. And I am not saying that I think the verdict of death is wrong. I'm just not sure that it's necessary. Is it? If Saddam were sentenced to life in prison, what, from the perspective of justice being carried out, would be "worse" about it? Yes, it would cost more to house him, feed him, clothe him, provide him with medical care and so on. But he would have to live his life in a cage. He would have to live the rest of his life in a cage thinking about the crimes that put him there. That is not my idea of a good life. That, to me, is punishment. But is it "enough"?

Then, I read on. And I read that in 1982, "Some of those hanged were children." Who could hang a child? And I know, I'm aware, that children often become part of the fighting forces in warfare. I'm recognize that children are capable of unfathomable acts of violence - the school shootings in the US are an easy example to cite. But to hang a child? To place a noose around the neck of a child, to look into their eyes, knowing that you are going to end their life and then to go through with it? It's incomprehensible to me. It's absolutely incomprehensible.

But I return again to the question of what's right....."an eye for an eye..." is Old Testament law. And we don't live under the old law anymore, by the Grace of God. So should we continue to follow it? Or should we move beyond that? Should the punishment "match" the crime or should the punishment fit the crime...should the punishers show more grace, more control, more justice than the criminals? But then, is the death penalty unjust?

As he was sentenced, the article states that he was trembling and defiant, as he shouted "God is great." His statement is not false. But in light of his actions, of his regime, of the life he lived and of his statement "Long live the people and death to their enemies. Long live the glorious nation, and death to its enemies," the premise of his initial statement, his belief system on which his statement is based, certainly is. But the trembling, I have to come back to the trembling. When confronted with his own mortality, with the very real reality of his own practically imminent death, I have to believe that the trembling came from fear. Fear. Because within the monster is a man. A human. And that, the fact that above all else, beyond all crimes, is the fact that I, for one, cannot overlook. Call me naive, call me overly compassionate, call me what you will. No matter what you call me, you cannot dispute that Saddam Hussein is a human being and that with the execution of his sentence, the life of a human being will be taken.

Is it right? Is it justice?

I don't know. That's how I have to conclude. I just don't know. Do you?

"'The verdict placed on the heads of the former regime does not represent a verdict for any one person. It is a verdict on a whole dark era that has was unmatched in Iraq's history,' Nouri al-Maliki, Iraq's Shiite prime minister.