Legal Commentary

Revenge Killings Are Not About Justice

By TChris

Many Iraqis are unhappy that Steven Green will not be executed for the atrocities he committed in Iraq, including the rape of a teenage girl and the murder of her family. A Sunni leader considers the sentence "insulting for Iraq's honor" while a leader of the family's tribe said:

“This is a tribal issue, and we cannot accept any moderate sentence except death. His life is the only cost that we will accept.”

If execution is the only "moderate sentence" the tribe will accept, one wonders what a harsh sentence might look like. Killing Green's family, raping his children, and burning down his house? A belief in eye-for-an-eye punishment or revenge is the reason Americans most frequently cite for their support of the death penalty. While it isn't surprising to hear similar views expressed in Iraq, particularly with regard to Green's horrific crimes, killing for vengeance or honor is not justice. [more ...]

As this blogger observed, Saddam Hussein's hanging was a revenge killing. It's easy to argue that Hussein deserved to die.

Many might see it as justified, but of course revenge killings are always justified -- by the motive of revenge.

Iraqis, like Americans, have little reason to view George W. Bush as a beacon of moral clarity, but in his bumbling way he managed to articulate the same point:

GEORGE BUSH has said the chaotic execution of Saddam Hussein looked like "kind of a revenge killing" and showed that the Iraqi government "has still got some maturation to do".

Anyone in the United States, Iraq, or elsewhere who equates killing for revenge or honor with justice has "got some maturation to do." Steven Green's death would not have made Iraq or the United States a more just country.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on May 23, 2009 (boomark / email).