[Vision2020] Torture & Confessions In Saudi Arabia & Death Penalty Deterrence Turned On Its Head

[Ted Moffett]

All:

In my previous post today at the bottom I offered info on the use of
"confessions" in Saudi Arabia, based on the real life story of William
Sampson, who was tortured for years in Saudi jails for crimes he did not
commit.  I am re-posting the same post under a different subject heading, to
emphasize the info on William Sampson's story, which can be read by scanning
to the bottom of this post.
--------------

 Bruce et. al.

I am not bored by your post, nor do I think the subject improper for the
list.  I don't buy the distinction some make about how to define a "local"
as opposed to "non-local" issue, when fundamental moral and political issues
are involved that should be of vital concern to everyone.  Debate on the
issues surrounding the death penalty are of particular importance at this
point in time, given that basic principles of political rights that are
fundamental to the death penalty debate, are now under attack in pursuing
the "war on terror," habeas corpus especially.  Habeas corpus was just
suspended by our government when Bush signed the Military Tribunal
legislation.

You touched many of the main points of argument in the death penalty debate,
and rather diplomatically, I thought, as you illuminated why many of the
pro-death penalty arguments are flawed or morally suspect.

I would like to add another argument to the debate on deterrence, which
turns the debate on the deterrent effect of life without parole vs. death on
its head, though I think the deterrence arguments for the death penalty to
be moot, considering the fundamental reason I think the death penalty should
not be law, which I will explain later.

A significant percentage of those committing the heinous crimes that result
in the death penalty care very little about anyones life, including their
own.  Witness the cold blooded killing of innocents at Columbine High School
in Colorado, or the recent killings in the Amish school, where the killer(s)
killed themselves before they could be apprehended by law enforcement.  I
could list many such cases of cold blooded murder followed by the suicide of
the murderer(s) to bolster this point, but the evidence is rather obvious.
The killers self imposed their own "death penalty!"

Which offers the most deterrent effect for murderers of this mentality, life
imprisonment or death?

I am suggesting that in a significant number of cases, guaranteed life
imprisonment on suicide watch, might be more of a deterrent than the death
penalty.  The self imposed "death penalty" of many killers bolsters this
conclusion.  They obviously would rather die.

But I really don't care if the death penalty is a deterrent, in the final
analysis of this issue.  If we want to construct a society where the State
has the maximum power over its citizens to maximize deterrence for the
commission of crimes, there are numerous measures that could be instituted.
I won't make a list of these measures, but only say they fall under the
category of instituting a police State, or fascist State.  I don't think
there is any way around the fact that a State that offers significant
freedom from government interference and regulation of individuals lives,
and protections against extreme abuses of State power, will allow a degree
of freedom where certain crimes may occur with more frequency, than in an
authoritarian State of one form or another.  And granting the State the
power to execute its own citizens is certainly one of the most, if not the
most, extreme powers.

Perhaps Ben Franklin's famous truism applies here?  "Those who sacrifice
liberty for security deserve neither."

I do not trust giving the State the power to execute its own citizens based
on the fundamental principle of limiting State power to the minimum
necessary to carry out its critical functions, even if the death penalty has
a deterrent effect, or can be ethically or morally justified as "justice."
Life imprisonment without parole can protect the public from monsters
without the further extension of State power of the death penalty.

What I find astonishing is that many of those who are pro death penalty are
also those who harp on about the corruption of government, limiting
government power, reducing taxes, the inefficiency of government, the
overall bungling of public sector bureaucracies, the lack of wisdom in
general of allowing the government to sensibly regulate business or run
peoples lives...Then they turn around and insist that this same bungling
government of corruption, waste and fraud, should be empowered to justly
decide who lives or dies in the death chamber!  An amazing contradiction of
reasoning!

Again, I don't trust the State with the power to execute (State sanctioned
murder, to my mind) its own citizens when they are jailed in secure custody,
even if it appears at a certain point in time that these executions are only
being applied without error to those most heinous criminals who deserve the
death penalty.

Need I list the examples from history where the death penalty has been
abused horribly by the State?  Make your own list.  The examples are
numerous and glaring.  And need I point out that the moral and legal
justifications for the death penalty in the USA create a moral and legal
climate that is part of the reason we now see prisoners in US administered
or supervised custody being tortured to death as we prosecute the "war on
terror?"

Bruce's illumination of the errors of false confessions in enforcing the
death penalty clearly demonstrates the potential for abuse of the death
penalty by the State.  And the "war on terror" has increased the potential
for this abuse.  Our so called ally, Saudi Arabia, has an interesting
approach to confessions as they apply their death penalty.  I heard an
interview, on KGO AM 810 khz radio, with William Sampson, who was jailed and
tortured by the Saudi's for years for crimes he did not commit.  He was
handed pre-written confessions and tortured till he signed them.  This poor
soul tried to figure out what to say or sign to get the torture to stop, but
it continued.  Finally, in desperation to end his life of misery, he decided
to act in a manner that he thought would result in a swift execution, by
damming and insulting Islam, a capitol offence in Saudi Arabia.  He was
released eventually, of course, but it seems a miracle he survived his
ordeal.

Link to his book on his ordeal:

http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin
/biblio?inkey=61-0771079052-0<http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/biblio?inkey=61-0771079052-0>

 Synopses & Reviews **Publisher Comments: What was it that I did to survive?
Where did those ideas come from? Where did I find the resolve to enact them?
At the time of my release, I had no ready answers beyond that I did what
seemed natural and necessary. In looking back, I realize that the
peculiarities of my personality helped me to adopt strategies that allowed
for the reclamation of my identity and my integrity while in the hands of
barbarians. Yet what I did is neither remarkable nor courageous nor beyond
the capabilities of any person that finds himself in similar circumstances.
What I have come to believe is that there exists in all of us the potential
to stand and fight and reclaim.

-- William Sampson

On Sunday, December 17, 2000, Canadian engineer William Sampson stepped
outside his house in Riyadh only to be hauled into a car and beaten by two
Saudi men he didn't know. Within an hour, he was incarcerated in one of the
city's most notorious jails. Within two months, he was tortured into a
confession of responsibility for a wave of car bombings he did not commit.
Sometime in that first year, he was sentenced to death in a secret trial.
For two and a half years, Sampson was continually subjected to beatings and
torture, convinced his death was just around the corner. Inept diplomacy
failed him but human rights groups took up his cause and on August 8, 2003,
he was finally freed in a controversial prisoner exchange. It wasn't until
February 2005 that Sampson's name was officially cleared when a British
inquest exonerated him of the crimes.

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Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett
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