And what of public executions?
Officials have considered staging a public hanging in Baghdad’s largest sports arena, Shaab Stadium, and filling the place with tens of thousands of spectators...That has been rejected, but only because of the security risk.
The linked article goes on to talk about the death penalty in Iraq, where at least 51 people have been hanged since August 2004. (The American authorities had suspended the death penalty in 2003.) Here's one anecdote:
On Sept. 6, the Iraqi authorities planned to hang 27 people. On the 13th hanging, according to an official who was there, the rope snapped and the convicted man plummeted 15 feet through the trap door onto the concrete floor. “God saved me!” the man cried. “God is great! I did not deserve this!” For an hour, he lay on the ground praying and shouting while prison guards and the executioner debated whether this constituted divine intervention and, if so, whether the man’s life should be spared. Once a new rope was rigged, however, the man was forced up the stairs once again and successfully hanged.
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Do you happen to know if there's an age limit for hangings? I heard that Saddam might "age out" from the penalty if he can extend his appeal until after his 70th birthday. I have not been able to confirm this, however.
If it's a neutral you want then there's no better choice than Peter O'Toole. (Scroll two-thirds down for the scene.)
Regarding the article, isn't it funny how the condemned are men or women at paragraph 17, prisoners at paragraph 18, and victims at paragraph 19? Not too subtle.
wv: "flemba." Traditional arabic cheer appropriate for weddings, sporting events and executions.
Does it have to be a hanging? May I propose death by a thousand cuts. That way you could have a thousand people stab him. I hope Santa Claus doesn't read this.
Normally I would be dead set against a public execution (even unseemly "Free him" and "Fry him" protests outside death row ae irritating), but Saddam's public death (or a "viewing post execution"?) could prove both a catharsis for the Iraqi people and a public confirmation that he is in fact gone. Similar to Mussolini as opposed to the conspiracy theories surrounding Hitler's demise. Just a thought....
More than anything right now, Iraqis need something that all the various factions in the country can unite behind. Perhaps hatred of Saddam might provide it; a public executiuon with three levers, pulled by three representatives of sunni, shiite and kurd might be a good national demonstration for them all to pull behind.
I'll do it.
Seriously, though, they should raffle it off. They could raise a lot of money that way.
Aside to gj: I'm pretty sure this isn't President Bush's call.
I bet it would really rattle the Islamic world if they used a female executioner.
Trivia question: Name the U.S. President who once served as an executioner (no, it was not Andrew Jackson; this is an actual execution, as opposed to Jackson once killing a man in a duel.
Of course, I've always wondered at the 'two wrongs make a right' mentality of executions in general, but this is just one more of the many examples of ways in which some conservatives have more in common with radical Islamicists than they want to believe.
I've always wondered at the 'two wrongs make a right' mentality of executions in general
People who support executions don't think that killing someone is wrong. They think that *murder* is wrong, and other sorts of killings -- such as self-defense killings and executions of convicted murderers -- are not.
So it isn't a case of two wrongs making a right, from their perspective. It is about eliminating a wrongdoer in the right manner.
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