Vengeance and Torture

1. When I was nine.

I have a hazy memory from many years ago when violence was rocking our country. When Bobby Kennedy was killed in 1968, I remember hearing some news of it on the radio and telling my mother that when they caught the killer they should tie him up and whip him until he died. I wanted vengeance.

And I have a hazy memory of my mother's response. I knew how she must have felt about the assassination. Yet in spite of this, she spoke of fairness and not letting vengeance get the better of us.

2. The Desert Vampire

When justice came to Iran's desert vampire, it was not pretty. There was more than an element of vengeance to it.

The crowd was held back by police. On the platform in the public square, the convicted killer collapsed twice as he was flogged 100 times. They let a victim's brother stab him. They asked the boy's mother to put the noose around the man's neck. The killer was pulled 10 meters into the air by a crane, where he died a slow death being throttled up and down in front of the shouting crowd.

3. The Professor

I particularly like the involvement of the victims' relatives in the killing of the monster, the professor said. I think that if he'd killed one of my relatives, I would have wanted to play a role in killing him.

And he added, I am especially pleased that the killing ... was a slow throttling and was preceded by flogging.

In subsequent comments, he reflected on the constitutional implications of his comments. He was, after all, a professor of American Constitutional Law.

I would ... endorse amending the Cruel and Unusual Punishment Clause to expressly exclude punishment for some sorts of mass murders, he said. And then he continued, I think the Bill of Rights is generally a great idea, but I don't think it's holy writ handed down from on high. Certain amendments to it may well be proper...

He spoke from his gut. So perhaps we can give him some slack. And after all, I had similar feelings in 1968, so perhaps I should give him some slack. But wait, I was nine years old then.

What are we to make of this? The Bill of Rights was generally a good idea? Amendments to allow cruel punishment? What kind of constitution would we have today if the task had been left to the likes of this man?

And lest you say this is just one voice from one man, lest you tell me to settle down and not get bent out of shape, let me remind you of Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib. Let me remind you of our policy of sending prisoners to foreign lands when they need a little softening up. And let me remind you who recently assumed the helm of our Department of Justice. And let me remind you of the torture memo from which he will not distance himself.

Vengeance and torture. The ends justify the means.

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