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Originally Posted by Tomkat
I don't really see how having him executed was acceptable justice, but that's because of my views on capital (i almost wrote corporal then lololo) punishment. Once he's dead he's unlikely to care about his crimes, or repent for them*.
In fact, being completely naive here, but isn't he Muslim and so therefore is of the view that he is going onto a better place? I'm obviously lumping him into the "he killed people just like those suicide bomber chaps and that was their mentality!" generalisation there, which is very simplistic, but I don't know what his religious orientation or views were.
A "just" punishment, in my view, would just be to give him a cell and the most mundane, dull existence possible. I wouldn't be able to cope with prison simply because I need my mind to be active. I can last for hours on my own thinking about things (NHS hospital waiting rooms will do that to you!) but I need human interaction too. Being killed for some horrible crime I've done would seem like a bit of an easy way out, rather than 50 or so years sitting on my own looking at the same patch of wall.
*(although who knows, now there's this funky proof that there's life after death?! i'm glad i found that out before I snuffed it!).
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It's not about subjective perceptions of what he enjoys. Maybe he has a strangulation fetish and ****ing loved the last few seconds of his life or maybe he has a blank wall fetish and would love being stuck in a jail cell. It's about justice for his crimes. From the perspective of justice it is irrelevant whether he repents or is rehabilitated or becomes the world's greatest internet comedian. To treat Saddam fairly for his crimes could quite reasonably include the death penalty. He is directly responsible for the slaughter of thousands of innocents. You can have some "non-justice" based objection to the death penalty, and we're not exactly running short on them, but the statement that nobody ever deserves to die for their crimes cannot be held to be an objective one in any sense of the word.