Limed for the Truth

Musings on the death penalty and the justification for its use in cases of crimes against humanity.

On the morning of December 30^th, 2006, Saddam Hussein went to the gallows and met the same fate as that of Charles Dickens’ character Fagin more than a century and a half earlier.

Why is this comparison at all relevant? It may be. Hussein died, ostensibly, for ordering the deaths of 148 people in 1982 following an assassination attempt. Of course, it is common knowledge that he is responsible for crimes that claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of victims, such as the 1988 Al-Anfal campaign that targeted the Kurdish population. In all, Fagin’s crimes of petty theft, contributing to the delinquency of minors and kidnapping pale in comparison. Yet, his hanging in 1830’s London would have been an uncontroversial matter of fact while there is no end to the controversy generated by the similar death of Saddam Hussein.

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