Saddam Hussein's death snetence

[DrMckay]

Saddam Hussein has been sentenced to death by hanging. As a sort of addendum to this, I was wondering what your opinions on this are, and how would you have handled his trial/apprehension.

In my opinion, there are two (fairly callous) things that may have worked a bit better to avoid us creating a martyr/holy figure:

1)If I was in charge, I would have: secretly, had the soldiers who apprehended him in his "spider hole" shoot him in the head a couple of times, and put a recently fired AK (with half a clip in his hands,) he can be shot "resisting arrest," as a war criminal/enemy combatant, and not as a helpless martyr in prison dying for the "good" of "his" people. the last thing we need is an Hussein as "messiah" to the Iraqui resistance

2) given the fact that we didn't kill him initially, we should definitely turn him over to the Iraquis for execution, (again, the martyr thing.)


Well, these are my (admittedly bloodthirsty) thoughts, tell me what you think/how you would have handled it.

Thank you and goodnight.

[Magus]

Eh... neither of these scenarios is particularly superior to the one you say is currently occurring. If the soldiers who found him had indeed killed him "off the record," then once the story inevitably leaked to the press, it would have likely caused the American government more problems than the current situation will. Either plan makes him a martyr - Your plan just adds "America is a bunch of conniving bastards" into the mix.

As far as an Iraqi execution is concerned - the demographic is too fragmented for such an action to be considered a public mandate. The US would undoubtedly entrust the execution to a group that could be trusted for certain - and the gov. would quickly be labeled as getting someone else to do their "dirty work."

[Surlethe]

As a sort of addendum to this, I was wondering what your opinions on this are, and how would you have handled his trial/apprehension.

Apprehend him and ship him off to the Hague for a fair trial.

1)If I was in charge, I would have: secretly, had the soldiers who apprehended him in his "spider hole" shoot him in the head a couple of times, and put a recently fired AK (with half a clip in his hands,) he can be shot "resisting arrest," as a war criminal/enemy combatant, and not as a helpless martyr in prison dying for the "good" of "his" people. the last thing we need is an Hussein as "messiah" to the Iraqui resistance

You don't think this scenario you propose is likely to get Saddam labeled a martyr?

2) given the fact that we didn't kill him initially, we should definitely turn him over to the Iraquis for execution, (again, the martyr thing.)

Why turn him over to the Iraqis for execution when we can send him to the Hague, give him a fair trial, and then execute him?

[Ritterin Sophia]

Shoot him with an AK while wearing gloves, get HIS prints on the AK, and claim he committed suicide.

[Elheru Aran]

Shoot him with an AK while wearing gloves, get HIS prints on the AK, and claim he committed suicide.

Rather more difficult than you'd think to pull off. And details WOULD come to light, sooner or later.

[Wyrm]

Why turn him over to the Iraqis for execution when we can send him to the Hague, give him a fair trial, and then execute him?

Silly Starship! If you hand them over to the Hague, then Saddam will be executed by the flithly Western infidels! Besides, we wouldn't get to see fair Iraqi trials in action, a Proud Product of Our Success.

[Netko]

I'm pretty sure the ICC has no death penalty, what with its major supporters all being the death-penalty-banned-if-you-want-to-join-the-club EU members.

I know the ICTY doesn't have it and it is considered to be the smaller scale prototype for the ICC.

[Ritterin Sophia]

Shoot him with an AK while wearing gloves, get HIS prints on the AK, and claim he committed suicide.

Rather more difficult than you'd think to pull off. And details WOULD come to light, sooner or later.

Regardless, that's the only possible scenario I could think of without him becoming a martyr.

[brianeyci]

Finally a thread appears where I have the chance to vent my disdain of the death penalty. I fucking hate the death penalty. Verdicts are rendered by human beings, and human beings make mistakes. Many high profile cases in Canada would likely have resulted in the death penalty, but later on DNA evidence acquitted those convicted. If you accept that human beings can make mistakes, then there should be a chance to undo that mistake, however small a chance that a mistake was made.

The objection is club feds. You don't want the majority of criminals going into ritzy hotels just because you want to protect the off chance of one guy in ten thousand that might be wrongfully convicted. Part of this problem is dilution of what is considered a right. You have a right to safety, security, healthcare, a home. As far as I'm concerned, extreme spartan conditions are just as vengeful as the death penalty. Put the man in a cell, have him come out one hour a day for exercise and walking around and the rest of the day he is by himself with the bare necessities for life. Allow him no pleasures at all, nothing that is not required except to keep him alive and healthy. Psychological health is important too, and there comes the gray area, but you could allow say simple pleasures like reading and writing and watching television and talking with visitors or friends. Depending on the severity of the crime, the degree of isolation and pleasures allowed can be inversely porportional.

Now you say, an exception to this must be made in the case of Saddam Hussein and war criminals, because there is so much evidence against him it is impossible for him to be wrongly convicted. Then there are those who say anti-death penalty proponents should not protest when someone like the founder of the Blood Crips is executed. They are missing the entire point. Anti-death penalty proponents cannot pick and choose. In fact by saying death penalty is wrong no matter who is convicted, they are being logically consistent.

The other line of reasoning is that eye for an eye is wrong. I will not touch on this, except to say that eye for an eye is barbaric, and when you say cut off the balls of pedophiles, kill pedophiles, kill murderers, there is one important thing you are missing and that is eye for an eye is vengeance and I can devise a method of vengeance far more effective than killing a person (which in Saddam's case may turn him into a martyr). Meanwhile, on the off chance that the person is innocent, one in a million, one in a billion, one in a trillion you are doing something that cannot be reversed, which if happened in several cases in Canada would have ended in tragedy. Or more likely, never found out at all, because once the person is dead, who cares.

How many people on death row were innocent and killed? We will never find out.