The death of saddam

[Wammy101]

I think, that in general, the death sentence is a disgusting thing. now, i in no way support or uphold what saddam did, but the way his death was publicised as a good thing, well, it made me sick. i heard a statement that read ’ this is a man who has the blood of thousands of people on his hands ’ and i actually shouted at the tv :well done, cos now you have the blood of one more on YOUR hands!!!
i mean, here is a question for you;
if some-one is sentenced to death, but are killed b efore the sentence is carried out, is the killer charged with murder. yes they are. so what right does the government have to kill. whatever god you believe in, i think it is their job, and their job only to take life.
what do you think
Cya,
Wammy

 

[LilyM]

I think, that in general, the death sentence is a disgusting thing. now, i in no way support or uphold what saddam did, but the way his death was publicised as a good thing, well, it made me sick. i heard a statement that read ’ this is a man who has the blood of thousands of people on his hands ’ and i actually shouted at the tv :well done, cos now you have the blood of one more on YOUR hands!!!
i mean, here is a question for you;
if some-one is sentenced to death, but are killed b efore the sentence is carried out, is the killer charged with murder. yes they are. so what right does the government have to kill. whatever god you believe in, i think it is their job, and their job only to take life.
what do you think
Cya,
Wammy

I in general am very against the death penalty too. Cases like Saddam’s have a whole lot of special factors to consider, however. There is no way he would not be a massive focus for trouble in Iraq while ever he had breath left in his body, while he was in jail or not.

And he was given a very open, public, and quite fair trial, with plenty of opportunity to present a defence for himself and appeal his conviction and sentence. Which is a lot more courtesy than he ever extended to any of the people he killed.

 

[pira114]

I’m all for the death penalty when it fits. And it never fit better than for Saddam. I don’t think it needs to be a public spectacle, but I don’t care if it is either.

Another point to consider is that in Saddam’s own religion, the death penalty is perfectly acceptable.

And as you put it, it should be up to “whatever gods you believe in.”

 

[Malcolm_McLean]

if some-one is sentenced to death, but are killed b efore the sentence is carried out, is the killer charged with murder. yes they are. so what right does the government have to kill. whatever god you believe in, i think it is their job, and their job only to take life.

A government has a duty to defend its citizens. This includes deterring and punishing crime.
So a person appointed by a government as an executioner is in a totally different moral position to someone who decides to exact private venegeance. This does lead to the question “who is a government?” which leads to a whole can of worms, but we will leave that issue for the time being.

A particular execution can be unjust, or unnecessarily severe. Some people argue that, where a credible penalty of life imprisonment can be imposed, executions are always unjust. Personally I think that commuting Saddam’s sentence to life imprisonment would have sent a powerful message that Iraq intends to go in a new direction. However, in the case of someone who had ordered the deaths of thousands if not hundred of thousands of other people, and who was arguably proving a focus for continuing acts of political violence, it is hard to argue that it was very wrong to impose the death penalty.

 

[manualman]

I’m generally against the death penalty in America for the kind of killers we typically get (who have little ability to influence events outside their jail cell).

But an unstable nation like Iraq might actually have a case under catholic teachings. I heard the Iraqi prime minister quoted as saying that the Iraqi government felt it had to execute Saddam quickly since they had credible information that mass kidnapping and hostage taking would likely occur by Sunnis as an attempt to force the Iraqi government to release him. If this was in fact a real possibility, Saddam may have actually qualified under catholic teaching that says that the state may apply the death penalty when there are no other reasonable steps that may be taken to protect the public from a dangerous killer.

 

[wjp984]

I am in support of the death penalty but I am not sure if I support it because I think it is a good thing or whether I think it is more fun to argue in favor of it as I often base my decisons on what side to choose based on who has less people in favor of the argument, where I have more of a say, and which one provides more of a challenge to win. Fortunately, being a good practicing Catholic means I get to almost always be on the side of the argument I prefer to be on and that meets the criteria that I like to choose sides with. In regards to the death penalty, Catholics are allowed to take either side and I probably could argue it both ways.

 

[IanBoyd57]

His trial wasn’t regarded by many, especially in the middle east, as fair. Although he was obviously guilty, it wasn’t quite proper and so on, I don’t know the exact details.

As he was being hung, he was calm and defiant, while his executioners taunted him.

As he died, he looked like a brave hero while his real victims looked like common thugs.