JU POLL: What should Saddam Hussein's sentencing be?

public execution, preferbly drawn and quartered.

The only creative thing I would do would be to smear that bullet in pig's blood first, ensuring his damnation.

I'd agree with that.

Death. As long as he's alive, he could find some way to influence people.  If he's dead, he can't do that.

I don't think death is appropriate, rather, a more creative sentence should be issued.

Of course, if smart, the judge presiding will realize he's setting a precedent...

I have to agree with dharma. If Saddam is left alive some people will still have hope he can be freed. Execute him.

Oh no, I hope I don't get in trouble with the aclu.

Hanging in the public square. [at rush hour] There is no better deterrent to crime.

Lock him up and let him rot for years on a crappy diet in a (very) small cell.

Choke him to death on a pork chop!

Quite a blood thirsty group, arn't we....

there should be a televised debate between him and Bush. It would be really interesting to see what comes out of both their mouths were they put in the same room together.

I'd agree with that.Death. As long as he's alive, he could find some way to influence people. If he's dead, he can't do that.

That's very Buddhist of you D

Life imprisonment. As others have said, death is too good. But I also reckon there's probably useful info he can dole out as required over the years to come. I doubt the US has gotten all his secret bank account details, or the locations of all his stockpiles, or who he's paid off and how. The Iraqi gov might end up being able to use that info in the future if they're careful.

Oh, and I wouldn't bother with the pork blood thing. I don't know what exactly you think of Muslim beliefs of the afterlife, but pig's blood isn't the only thing that sends you to hell - his crimes alone are in theory capable of that. Although of course as in Christianity Islam does feature an all-merciful God, so who knows exactly what his fate would be.

As long as he's alive, he could find some way to influence people. If he's dead, he can't do that.

Maybe. But in some quarters a pathetic old man spending his remaining days shuffling around a dank cell is far less 'influential' than a 'martyr' slain by the 'Great Satan'.

I'd go for life imprisonment. I've no doubt that he deserves death many times over, but I'd want to at least try and stick to a principled anti-death penalty stance, difficult as it is in this case. The problem is that for a tyrant like Saddam, who has done what he has done, the death penalty just feels so right. Still, I basically agree with these words from the Dalai Lama: "...every one of us has the potential to commit crimes, because we are all subject to negative disturbing emotions and negative mental qualities. And we will not overcome these by executing other people".

Funnily enough, I actually think that those who support the death penalty are idealists. They expect it to accomplish far more than it actually can. The deterrent effect is minimal (but not neglible) - obviously the rehabilitation effect is zero - and even the revenge turns out to be less satisfying than anticipated.

Dostoyevsky, who underwent a 'mock execution' after being arrested for political crimes in tsarist Russia made the point that execution is actually crueler than murder. In his novel The Idiot, Prince Myshkin says, "Murdering someone for murder is a horrible punishment out of all proportion to the crime. Condemnation to execution is unbelievable more terrible than the way a criminal kills. When a criminal kills someone, they cut his throat at night, in a forest or somewhere, and without question the victim still hopes he will be saved, to the very last moment. There have been many cases where someone's throat is cut, but they still hope, or run, or cry out for help. But with execution, that last hope, which makes it ten times easier to die, has been taken away for certain; here the sentence, and the fact that you know you won't avoid it, torments the prisoner, and there is nothing on earth worse than that".

Happily it's not my decision anyway, so academic really. In the end, if those who have loved ones buried in mass graves want to take his life, and if they then manage to feel some closure through doing so, then his death may serve some useful purpose.

Dead dead dead. It's that simple. Put him to death once for each person he killed or had killed. He is a murderous dictator who, inexplicably, still has a following of sycophants who think that the Sunnis will remain in power. He will continue to inspire as long as he is alive to, maybe, one day, resume command of Iraq. He deserves to die and he will die.

While a life in prison sentence may allow him to influence people, I dont see that Rudolph Hess had much influence during his long imprisonment.  I tend to think that he would become a pathetic figure of ridicule.

public execution, preferbly drawn and quartered.

Ouch, Ouch, and OUCH! No way man, i remember reading about the french revolution and some of the things that happened....(not saying that Louis and his bunch were innocent...but, does violence justify violence?)

hat's very Buddhist of you D

I agree with you on that PB... and get better...

How about borrowing a line from "Alice in Wonderland".....Off with his head!!!

I think he should just be summmarily executed without a trial. He certainly extended no more consideration than that to his 'enemies.'

I would normally agree, but then we'd be no better than he was. This was the reason for the spectacle theymade of the Nuremburg Trials.....to show the world that law and fair, impartial (if there really could be impartiality in such a trial) justice rules over totalitarianism.

I think he should be sentenced to life in a paper hat working at the UN snack bar (of course, he'd have to shave his beard), or maybe as a janitor scrubbing toilets. After all, he made so much illegal money off them for so many years, why cut him off now? At least he'd be working for it.

I think they should put him in a burka in a very hot cell, and then scent his cell with the same chemicals he used on his own people.

Hanging in the public square. [at rush hour] There is no better deterrent to crime.

"Grandpappy tole mah pappy, 'Back in mah day, son;
a man had to answer for the wicked thing he done.
Take all the rope in Texas, find a tall oak tree;
Roun' up alla them bad boys, hang'em high in the street.
For all the people to see."

Why?

Cause justice is the one thing you should always find.

I changed my mind. here's what they should do

Cut off his hands and feet, pull all of his teeth out, blind him, let him keep his hearing, let him beg for food for the rest of his life on the streets of bagdad.

Ouch, we *are* a blood thirsty group..... remind me never to head that direction...

I think he should just be summmarily executed without a trial.

I don't know about that, he has a lot to say for himself, a lot of information to give, and a lot of testifying to do. I am reminded of the words of Trotsky when he had the ice pick in his head. "Do not kill him! This man has a story to tell."

Hmmm....talk about a cold and cruel death....

A story, thats what hussein has, a story...full of BS...



Best Regards, Lucas

I think he should get the death penalty. I do agree that it is far too quick and easy on him, but there isn't much can be done to him in prison that wouldn't cause the rest of us to become like him.

We have to remember that justice is the goal, not revenge. The only just punishment for his crimes is death.

Parated2k-

True, but just try to get AI, ACLU, or other uber-idiot civil rights extremists to agree with that...

--Lucas