littlebabyjesus
one of Maxwell's demons
'The Scottish powers' do NOT control the judiciary. You're confusing politics with the law.
Release Lockerbie bomber Abdelbasset Ali al-Megrahi or not?
- Thread starter weltweit
- Start date
danny la rouge
I have a cheese grater in the dishwasher.
Even if not released he wouldn't be serving 27 years.
Well he ain't gonna serve 27 years one way or the other, unless they can do some kind of Lazarus trick on him.
danny la rouge
I have a cheese grater in the dishwasher.
The correct decision was made.
And which contempt? The speech I watched contained frequent and detailed acknowledgement of their situation and feelings.
I'm not sure that's true. It would certainly have meant the prisoner transfer process could have been used (which I understand couldn't until all proceedings had been completed) ... but that wasn't used anyway.
I have seen nothing to suggest that dropping the appeal was a necessary step in the release on compassionate grounds.
hipipol
Peckham Wry
Under Scottish law the compasionate release could not have occurred while there were legal proceedings pending
It is not an admission of guilt
It was simply the only option if he did not want to die in jail
I admire the SNP for chosing not the popular, but the correct way, to behave
That fact that a bunch of seppoes who regulary give children the death penalty in their own country are vexed by and cannot get their heads around the decision shows how few of them read the Bible they profess to love to much
hipipol
Peckham Wry
OOps, I thought it was
littlebabyjesus
one of Maxwell's demons
I understood that it was a prerequisite. A little like when parole is denied those who do not admit their guilt, which can lead to monstrous miscarriages of justices such as the poor innocent chap who spend 27 years in prison – at least a decade longer than he would have done had he admitted guilt.
Anyway, the correct decision was made imo, both morally and in accordance with Scottish law. How the Libyans and Americans react to that is entirely irrelevant.
hipipol
Peckham Wry
I trust that if your child had been blown out of the sky and sent crashing to the earth in flames that you'd also be as 'compassionate' to the person found guilty of making that happen..
'Seppoes'.. grow up..
littlebabyjesus
one of Maxwell's demons
I sincerely hope I would be. A big test, for sure.
danny la rouge
I have a cheese grater in the dishwasher.
Not an adjective I'd apply to MacAskill. No, this decision - and the compassionate release law itself - comes firmly from the tradition of Scots Presbyterianism.
hipipol
Peckham Wry
Yes I would hope I could be mature about it
I did go past the huge hole in Lockerbie about 3 days later on my way to my Grandads funeral - it was horrible
I was also caught up in two IRA bombings in which people died.
The two men who were head of the Provs then are now MPs and never did a moments time
It is important to stick with what is right
An eye for eye creates a land of the blind
QueenOfGoths
Fuck you Dave!
This, for me, is the crux of the issue, doing what is right and what is decent and I feel that this was done in releasing al-Megrahi.
...which is why it's not the victims of crime or their families who are charged with making such decisions.
Whilst their desire for retribution is a consideration, it's far from the only consideration.
I still don't think this was a decision taken wholly on the basis of the principle of compassion (I think it was pragmatic case of the best of a bad set of options), I think compassion played it's part and rightly so.
It might turn out to be (Scottish law has always been something of a mystery to me, even at the pointed end, let alone something as arcane as this!) ... but from what I've seen and heard I had the distinct impression that it was an issue for the prisoner transfer thing, but I have not seen it specifically linked to the compassionate release thing.
Which is why judicial decisions should be made objectively by people not personally involved with the case.
If the US had the slightest respect for international law then their bleatings may well have some basis ... but, of course, they don't (well, in fairness to Obama, they haven't done of late ... hopefully things will change ...)
T & P
|-o-| (-o-) |-o-|
If anything he has shown honour, composture and respect. Have a read at his statement:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/8212910.stm
This is a man who has almost certainly been the victim of one of the grossest miscarriages of justice in legal history. A man who (again, almost certainly) being completely innocent of the charges levelled against him, will go to his grave a convicted murderer.
It's a fucking disgrace. And the biggest disgrace of all is that the US government is fully aware of the highly dubious basis for the man's conviction.
gnoriac
lowly seer
Whereas the American attitude seems to come from their obsession with revenge.
Funnily enough, at the time, they didn't have a crystal ball and know the poor bugger was going to drop dead of cancer after a few years. The only embarrassment was that he was convicted at all given the piss-poor standard of evidence provided.
Azrael
circling Airstrip One
Emotionalism is letting your emotions dominate. It's not a binary choice between emotions or no emotions. Tempering them with reason doesn't compel you to become Commander Data. Megrahi's crime was horrific, and I gave a (restrained) detail to show I understood that. If I was being emotional I'd have followed with a Jacobean torture fantasy. I didn't.
Or spend their days picking broken glass out their food if they fall foul of the repulsive judgment of the criminal mob. I can't comment personally on life in an asylum, but I imagine the regime, and the type of people incarcerated there, aren't the same as the inmates Megrahi would associate with. Even if they were, four months and sixty-odd years are clearly separate prospects. Even if we returned to disciplined prisons the prospect of a lifetime's confinement is daunting, to say the least. The Italian inmates who petitioned their government for the right to be executed certainly didn't fancy life inside.
Besides, it's not life in prison I was objecting to (although I do object to it) but specifically forcing an inmate to die of a terminal illness in gaol. Yes, convicts have lost their right to be free but not their right to be free of cruel and unusual punishment, as guaranteed in the Bill of Rights, 1689 (and its Scottish equivalent).
One of the many reasons that life sentences are flawed. Since they're in the hands of nature they're arbitrary, and two prisoners could endure wholly separate degrees of punishment. If we choose to have them for all that, we shouldn't complain if illness supersedes the court's sentence.
Only if the entire population are criminals.
Personally I have no idea if I'd be able to think rationally. I strongly suspect I wouldn't, and would be lost to a grief-fuelled desire for revenge. Which is why victims cannot be asked to make a balanced calculation of punishment.
Very well said!
Sasaferrato
Super Refuser!
DexterTCN
Troy and Abed in the morning
When we reference the American comments and judgements on this...we must make sure to keep them in the context of them blowing an Iranian passenger jet out of the air a little while before 'Lockerbie', killing all the passengers.
That was a mistake...not terrorism...apparently
That was a mistake...not terrorism...apparently
spring-peeper
Well-Known Member
So he was let out of jail for oil and gas contracts!
nice http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8215554.stm
nice http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8215554.stm
Scotland's an international laughing stock at the moment. My god, sometimes Urban outdoes itself. It's like a parallel universe...
Well done Scotland! You remind me of the naive fools I see buying 'weed' down on coldharbour lane of a friday night.
Similar threads
