NYC Letter: Judge, Spare My Boy

SADDAM MUST DIE, SAY LAWYERS

BAGHDAD June 20, 2006 (Scotsman) - IRAQI prosecutors yesterday demanded the death penalty for former dictator Saddam Hussein and three of his aides for crimes against humanity following a 1982 crackdown on Shiites in which hundreds were killed and tortured.

A smiling and relaxed Saddam, who has repeatedly dismissed the US-backed court as a farce and faces death by hanging if found guilty, told the chief prosecutor after he finished his closing arguments: "Well done."

Good. Everyone's agreed.

Well, no. Not quite. François Roux, celebrity lawyer to the notorious and the obnoxious*, pulled out his hanky for Saddam back in 2004:

SADDAM HUSSEIN NE DOIT PAS ÊTRE CONDAMNÉ À MORT
August 25, 2004 (Libération)

(The article is a paid download.)

M. Roux's argument runs something like this, right-thinking internationalism proscribes the death penalty. If Iraq wants to be part of this great big club, the Iraqi Special Court must proscribe the death penalty. To kill Saddam is not up to international snuff. It's that "Ceauşescu reflex" -- admittedly a reflex encumbered with the extravagant protractions of due process. Yes, well, it's a rather long reflex.

To even consider killing Saddam is to consign Iraq to the company of backward nations, such as the United States.

* We do not here suggest that the notorious or obnoxious be skimped legal representation. But we find lawyers that make a career of this sort of thing at some point stop lawyering (offering a defense in law) and start shilling (offering a defense steeped in their clients' polemics).