Moussaoui gets life in prison. Is that fair or should he have received the death penalty?
536255
VERY fair...dead he would be a martyr for islam. He would have been honored as a hero, instead of the TRUE heroes of 9-11 and the war on terror. Now he gets to sit in SHAME for the rest of his life. That is if he doesnt "sacrifice" himself first....one can only pray. =)
870442
That they shouldnt sentence him to death, beacuse there dumb and they are letting him get away with all he has done with a simple death.. they should let him stay in a bad prison for the rest of his life or kill him after he has been in prison for atleast 20 years.
620757
The tug and pull can be summed up as the theoretical and the reality.  For the first, I would want us to rehabilitate people, make them into productive members of society - that maximizes social good.  Reality is, that aint gonna happen for some people, and many come out worse than they went in.  Theoretically, putting someone in prison for life is more expensive.  Reality, a death row appeal ends up costing more dollars b/c of the expense to the taxpayer on the legal system.  Theoretically, we should tell people that killing is wrong, and teaching that lesson by doing the same.  Reality is, people commit crimes not with fear of the level of punishment, but by balancing the likelihood of getting caught.\nReality - society doesn't care, and most people dont care what ridiculously high percentage of people get railroaded by the justice system.\nBut I will say this from my personal opinion, I am tired of caring for people that want to whine about how their punishment isnt fair.  People make choices, and if you step outside the bounds society lays out, they shouldn't be surprrised that they don't like how society reacts.
892459
you're quite brave to say this with anger still inside after he took your daughter from you!\n\nI also don't believe in the death penalty, we are not ones to judge whether we take another life too...\n\nas for the so called "luxuries" that prisoners get, it's called humanity!\n\nBUT one things for sure, they can't just wake up and get into their car and go for a drive to the shops, go to their friends place, see a family member, go to a movie, picnic... or even decide on a vacation.\nThey cannot join friends in another social gathering...\n...they cannot get up and help themselves to the refridgerator.\nCan't phone anyone they like when they like...\n\nThey ARE in prison, but how awful to know you are held captive in a cell only to be killed off eventually!
222060
I am against the death penalty as it does not make any solution. When we are giving a person death penalty, we are doing the same bad thing that we can't. Nobody has any right to murder other, the final judgement is in hand of God. That we can do maximum against a criminal is to give him/her an imprisonment for several years.
492213
Dear Papa bear... If you are writing in regards to Massaoui (wrong spelling)being put into prison for life... it was the wiser action.  If we executed him, the Muslims rebels would have used that as another reason to motivate more Iraquians to join their brigades and continue in the terrorist activities... And Massousi (spelling) wanted to be executed... as he figured he would be considered a martyr and remembered... He did not want to be imprisoned for the rest of his life... This life sentence was more horrible to him that death... And we prevented another reason for the terrorists to use his death as a motive for gaining recruits... and more terrorist actions to the US.\nIt was the wiser of the two choices... He will not be happy to spend his life in prison... as he is "young" and he will be there a long time... Hope this helps...
64803
He committed the crime when he was 50 year old. He then sat on death row for the next 24 years, so yes he sentence should be carried out, should have been done much sooner.
826091
how can the sentence be fair in a situation where the trial was a show trial staged by a puppet government? \nWhatever the rights and wrongs of his case, the trial and outcome can never be seen as fair and just.
42465
Yes.  However, we need to be certain of the condemned man's guilt.  The "reasonable doubt" bit is ok to send him to jail, but not to kill him.  \nLife without parole?  OK fair enough, but to put a 30 year old man in a cage and tell him we'll never let him out is just cruel....I think it's actually merciful to put him to death.
921692
No it is much better than he deserves.\n\nHe should be sentenced to imprisonment in a pig sty.
693796
Life in solitary confinement will be far more painful, especially for someone who anticipated his heavenly rewards.\n\nRudy Giuliani, a former prosecutor, said it was solitary or being in the hands of "red blooded American criminals."\n\nHe's expected to go to prison with Richard Reid, the shoe bomber, where solitary IS solitary.  Food will be placed in a room that Moussaoui will only enter when no one is there - no human contact\n\nThe jury has spoken, they deliberated for an extraordinarily long time, and they heard ALL the facts presented.  Most of the families seem accepting; not all are completely satisfied.  Also, there can be no appeal, which will save them much grief. \n\nI think this was a good verdict.
915529
How quick are people here to jump blindly to all kinds of conclusions about this.  Firstly, most people are forgetting that your question as us if WE were sentenced to death....perhaps some people here should try to get their head round that bit of the concept first before assuming that anyone should be sentenced to death.  \n\nThere have been a lot of miscarriages of justice - in the UK think of people who have been released years after being sentenced because they were wrongly imprisoned in the first place. You can't bring people back from the dead so there's a moral and ethical question people ought to ask themselves about whether the death penalty - is something that is right in the first place.  Thankfully in the UK we abolished it but there are plenty of other countries that still exercise this sentencing option.  \n\nWhen is it right to sentence someone to death, and when is it not?\n\nOf course this question has probably been prompted by the news that Saddam Hussein has been sentenced to death for crimes against humanity.  Even in the case of such a tyrant he did not act alone - he had people around him who supported him in his actions.  Yes some will have done it out of fear, but for everyone of those there will have been someone who did it with the same intent as Saddam.  Whilst I abhor his actions is it right that he carries this alone?\n\nOf course, in an instance like this people's gut reactions will think I'm a bleeding heart liberal.  But now imagine you're in a train carriage with two other people.  One gets up and brutally stabbing the other before jumping off the still moving train.  You're found bent over the body with blood on your hands.  The CCTV wasn't working and all the evidence points at you.  Do you still believe in the death penalty?\n\nThere've been cases where people have been sentenced to death despite having the mental age of a child and not knowing the difference between right and wrong - they're particularly tragic.  And then there are the options themselves as to the way you die.  Lethal injection etc.  They say that some methods are quicker than others.  The quickest, I understand, is meant to take almost immediate effect and yet in some US States where they offer this the doctor still does not declare the patient dead for 30 minutes, suggesting that it is not as quick as they claim. If it has to be then surely it should be by the quickest method possible.  As if someone is to die a slow death then are we not committing an act of torture leading to death?  Don't we become as bad as the person who's committed the crime?
34205
becasue there are people out there the deserve it. I believe in the death penalty very much. If they are found guilty of what they did and its a bad thing then they deserve to die for it. They have no mercy on what they did so why should we show mercy.
82155
There are criminals who have committed seriously violent crimes who are deemed menaces to society. The object of prison is not only to punish, but to rehabilitate inmates. If an inmate is unable to be rehabilitated, there are two options: life imprisonment without parole, or the death penalty. It is very expensive to legally place someone on death row, It's not as though they are dragged out of court and immediately shot after 1 trial. Defendants are given every opportunity to cast doubt on their guilt, it has not always been this way. In some parts of the world, unfair trials are followed by immediate execution. \nThe death penalty may not be a good deterrent for violent crime but it is a fitting penalty for some and criminals are treated relatively well considering their treatment of the victims of their crimes.
398134
I have to say the one that went to jail had a bum rap. But I doubt very much if they will pay him back financialy. He lost a lot of years. With all respect to the the girl who was killed. He was accused, mistreated,freedom taken away, and probably treated  ungodly in prison. Being locked up is hell on earth.
715184
that is one way off lookin at it but the arguement against it could be.\n1. if the person was found innocent later on...they could be freed\n2. suffering for a life time much better than a quick death\n\ni have a solution...\n\nturn prisons into factories... like get them to make pillows....or bag up paper clips or something... that way they can "give back to society" and still suffer!... cos that wat it all about!
545563
he was beaten to death in prison, which I think is better than the death penalty, because he had suffered more, rather than a painless death by lethal injection.