Jail or Death: What Would You Choose?

Veronica Desangles, International Studies Academy, Wat it do, ISA? (February 2007):

If a madman were to kill someone who was very dear to you what would you want to have happen to him? Would you want him to die quickly or to spend his life suffering in jail?

Former President of Iraq Saddam Hussein was executed by hanging after being convicted of genocide and crimes against humanity. He was tried and convicted for the murder of 148 Iraqi Shi'ites in the town of Dujail in 1982 for an assasination attempt on his life.

After standing trial for more than two years, Hussein was executed in his native country in retaliation. He was hung at ‘Camp Justice’ in the city of Khadhimiya, Iraq, a suburb northeast of Baghdad, according to information obtained from www.wikipedia.org.

While he deserved to be killed, it feels like an empty win. It feels as if he didn’t go through the pain that thousands of others went through when he killed their families. Sure, while he was walking toward his imminent death on the gallows people were ridiculing and cursing him, but how does that even come close to everyone else’s pain?

Some of the families he had destroyed might feel like death is better than him staying in jail, but I know I would want him to spend his life in jail.

A fellow classmate of mine who chose to remain anonymous offered an opinion on this matter. “I wanted him to stay in jail for a while before getting killed,” the person said. Another classmate of mine said, “I’m glad he died, he deserved it.”

Everyone believes in different things. I believe he should have been put in jail for the rest of his life.