CNN is running this piece about the U.K. not wishing to extradite Bin Laden in the hands of potential U.S. executioners.
My humble opinion… Yes, the U.K. should hold the man back from the U.S. in the face of execution.
If the U.S. is going to set up a kangaroo court, outside the influence of the people’s justice system. A court run by Bush, one of the most murderous executioners in the nation’s history, and his minions. Then yes, place the fool up for trial in front of a multinational tribunal. One where the U.S. has a voice, but doesn’t hold Bush up as judge, jury and executioner.
Here is what I wrote on capitol punishment over a year ago:
I cannot tolerate the fact that we are allowing the government to murder human beings in the name of justice for all. I do not trust the political, judicial, or any other entity established by our government not to personalize an issue such as this. Hence, this is the real key to the debate on the death penalty. Personalization. No one, in my opinion, can prevent themselves from personalizing decisions made that determine the nature of a punishment as final as the death penalty.
I’ve never heard a death penalty argument (either pro, or con) that is strictly empirical and impersonal. They always start, or end with: “If your (insert relative here) was (insert henous crime here), what would you want done?” Good god, has anyone thought that that is exactly what jurors are doing? Doesn’t anyone else realize that capitol cases are what help advance the prosecutors political careers via the extended publicity? Does anyone else realize that very rich and powerful law firms donate legal talent to defend capitol criminals because of the great publicity? Isn’t anyone else uncomfortable with construct that we have given our government the power to determine the life and death of it’s citizens? Finally, what system, other than appeals, have we established to make sure that an innocent person isn’t put to death? How about this for personalization: If I ware an innocent man standing accused of a capitol crime, facing death… my life in the hands of lawyers and career politicians, I would find a way to take my own life.
Now, this Bin Laden is no citizen, he is not an innocent by any means. But, to stand by a belief or conviction, then it has to be concrete enough to stand by under any circumstance.
This is one of those times. Kill him, but kill him in battle, kill him by means of war in the face of capture. I’m not intersted in seeing him captured and brought in alive for the sake of justice. I’d rather see his corpse maimed from the effect of battle then by the needle of a physican.