The Thin Silver Lining in the Moussaoui Verdict
Posted on May 6, 2006
Filed Under In the Media |
From the Washington Post blog:
For what it’s worth, I’m glad Moussaoui got life. He’ll suffer more this way. He won’t be allowed to pretend he’s a martyr. The death penalty for Timothy McVeigh may have been fully justified, but it wasn’t sufficient punishment for what he did. He just went to sleep, by lethal injection, feeling validated in his belief that he was a martyred political prisoner. There are worse ways to die — such as in solitary confinement in the SuperMax prison in Colorado.
Moussaoui will reportedly spend 23 hours a day in an 8-by-5 cell. (I saw one account that said 22 hours). He’ll be allowed brief forays into a small walled courtyard that has a narrow view of the sky. The New York Post quotes trial testimony by a former prison warden named James Aiken:
“We are not preparing him for a return to society. We are not even preparing him for a return to the general population. The mission here is incapacitation.” He said isolated inmates deteriorate.
“Times takes its toll and they just rot.”
This doesn’t make the jury’s decision right. The idea that a nickel of taxpayer money will go toward keeping this sh*t stain alive is nauseating. But given that the verdict has been cast and there’s nothing you or I can do about it now, I’d much like to look on the bright side. And honestly … this damn near gets me aroused.
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