Zacharia Moussaoui -- life or death?

The court of public opinion doesn't hold much sway in the case of Zacharia Moussaoui.   But let's assume that it does and that we are the jury deciding whether to give him life in prison or death by lethal injection.

The death sentence is the appropriate penalty in many cases, and Zach seems to be begging for it.  So let's not let him have it.  My vote goes for the life sentence.

Put him in one of those super-max prisons where he has to stay alone in his cell for 23 hours a day.  And to leave the cell he has to strip down, expose all potential hiding places, open his mouth for inspection, spread his cheeks, etc, etc.  And he's hand/foot cuffed before he has contact with the guards.  Any resistance and he gets popped with a few pepper balls.  If that doesn't work, then ZAP with the Taser.

Having him put to sleep by some needle stick would be very unsatisfying to those of us who watched our tv screens as those planes hit the twin towers that day.

On the other hand, knowing he is subjected daily to some forced humility could be quite satisfying.  There would be no 72 virgins for that boy.  And he would know it.

Updated 5/04/06:  It's official.  Zach got a life sentence. (Actually, I may have misspelled his name above.  Most of the accounts say it's Zacarias Moussaoui.)

MSNBC has had programs showing what life is like in those super max prisons, and it's a bleak existence for the hapless souls who end up there.  And in the next few days the main stream media will probably give us more information about prison life than we ever wanted to know.

But it's perfect for someone like Zach who was probably motivated, like many terrorists, not by expectation of some heavenly reward but by earthly attention and glorification.

So the austere life of a super max prisoner should be a fitting way for Moussaoui to finish out his life.

Comments

[Vigilante]

Life for Zacharia Moussaoui!

[los angeles hotels]

Zacarias Moussaoui deserves to live. I'm glad that he was given a life sentence.