What are we Thinking??!
A CNN Quick Poll (not scientific, I know) asks "Do you support seeking the death penalty against 9/11 suspects?" Currently the votes are running about 3 to 1 in favor.
Yikes. I realize that because there's a death penalty involved (and because we're talking about actions which killed thousands of people) the water is very murky here. Perhaps I'll explore why another time. Right now, I think the major issue to consider is that seeking the death penalty against a foreign national is a political act. As such, it needs an unsentimental examination.
On the plus side, convicting these guys and executing them would probably feel good to many Americans. (In fact, I think the question that most people were really answering was "Do you think convicted 9/11 conspirators deserve the death penalty?")
[update: publicagenda.org reports that the level of support does in fact depend heavily on the wording, which they call "a classic sign of conflicted or uncertain public feelings on this issue." I take that in support of my assertion above.]
On the minus side, however:
- We would be creating martyrs...and fanning the rage of many people who are disgusted with the way the US has conducted itself towards Islamic nations.
- Do we expect other countries, and citizens of other countries, to put their trust in our legal system? Maybe once upon a time, but given our post-9/11 track record, that's a tall order.
- We would be putting our trust in a military tribunal, which has weaker safeguards than what we normally accord citizens. And even in our normal justice system, there are plenty of wrong convictions to be found.
This last perhaps explains the way capital cases turn out in my home state of California: it seems that many people are sentenced to death, but few are actually executed. Jurors get to decide the question of whether the defendant deserves the death penalty, without being responsible for considering any downstream negative consequences to the decision. If no death sentences are carried out, the citizenry gets the feelings of having given out the ultimate punishment, without having to worry about the downsides of putting someone to death. Clever.
Posted at 08:00AM Feb 12, 2008 by AceOfSpuds in General |