Equal Justice

John Allen Mohammed has been executed and quite frankly I don’t feel any safer.

At the Greensville Correction Facility just outside Richmond Virginia the DC Sniper breathed his last. He was executed after having been convicted of the murder of Dean Meyers, one of the victims in this madman’s killing spree that took ten lives in total. Some of the victim’s family members who witnessed the execution called it surreal, while others claimed it gave them closure.

I have the deepest sympathy for the families that lost their loved ones to this homicidal maniac who rigged his car so he could enter the trunk through the back seat where he laid in wait for his victim and shot through a hole in the trunk. I hope they do indeed find peace and closure in this eye for an eye retribution. But tomorrow morning the sun will rise and each will have to face yet another day without their loved one.

I am not ashamed to admit that I am a conservative who opposes the death penalty. I oppose it for several reasons including the possibility of killing an innocent person as well as the additional expense of executing someone versus simply locking them up for the rest of their life with no possibility for parole and none of the constitutionally mandated appeals that come with a capital punishment sentence. In this case the guilt of Mohammed was unquestionably clear. And while I can’t help but feel we are overstepping our bounds when, in the name of justice, we commit state sanctioned homicide, I do accept that execution is the law of the land and is approved by a wide margin of the population. I also accept that if we are to have such a punishment the brutal murder of ten innocent victims certainly meets the requirements for using it.

At the same time that John Allen Mohammed was being prepared for his final walk in Virginia, President Barack Obama was addressing the grief-stricken families of the 13 victims killed by Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan in Texas. President Obama told the families they could be assured that “...for what he has done, we know that the killer will be met with justice, in this world, and the next." Obama stopped short of calling this heinous mass murder an act of terrorism, but he did say "It may be hard to comprehend the twisted logic that led to this tragedy. But this much we do know: no faith justifies these murderous and craven acts.”

That’s a pretty strong condemnation and equally strong promise coming from the President regarding this mass murder carried out on the grounds of this Texas military base. I am not sure if this crime will be tried by a federal court as an act of terrorism or by a US Army military court. But either way the death penalty is certainly a possibility and seems to me to be the only reasonable sentence if Hasan is found guilty.

If execution was considered justice for the DC Sniper and his ten victims then it most certainly should be the same justice promised to the victim’s families by the President for this killer of thirteen. It will however be interesting to see if equal justice prevails when the guilty party is a practicing Muslim or if that fact will be this Islamic extremists "Get Out Of Death Free" card.

It will also be interesting to see how much political pressure is placed in the court during both the trial and sentencing. If Nidal Malik Hasan is given a life sentence rather than a death sentence simply because he is Muslim, then the death sentence should be abolished for everyone else as well.

Justice in this world and the next? Let’s see if President Obama meant what he said and is willing to send this Islamic jihadist to meet his Ultimate Judge.