Justice and the Powerful

Dear Friends,

Justice and fairness are sorely lacking in the world today.  Perhaps they always have been, but now it is just so evident.  You have to be intentionally ignorant not to see this lack of justice.  The manner in which our criminal justice system deals with the powerful and the weak is a perfect example

This dichotomy was starkly present in the opinion section of The New York Times yesterday.  One of the lead editorials was entitled "Prosecute the Torturers and their Bosses" (here).  While the editorial calls for the prosecution of the people in power who approved/ordered torture, it admits

as hard as it is to imagine Mr. Obama having the political courage to order a new investigation, it is harder to imagine a criminal probe of the actions of a former president.

I completely support the call to prosecute those who planned, ordered, condoned and carryout torture.  Unfortunately, the lack of justice in the United States makes it impossible for me to believe that there will ever be any prosecution of these powerful criminals.

Charles Blow's column "Pursuing Justice for All" (here) discusses the complete lack of justice for those who lack power and particularly those persons of color.  The column relates the case of a 14 year old black boy convicted of killing two white girls in South Carolina in 1944.  He was tried, convicted and executed within three months of the killings.  The story is grotesque.  He was 95 pounds, received a completely inadequate defense, was found guilty by an all white, all male jury, and electrocuted.  He was so small he had to sit on a book to fit in the electric chair.  The story says either a telephone book or the Bible.  Recently a South Carolina judge threw out the conviction.

This was a victory of sorts: a 70-years-too-late admission that the justice system failed that black child, and that the failure culminated — in short order — in the taking of his life. Yet something about it feels hollow and discomforting, like the thunder that rolls long after the lightning has cracked the sky and split the tree.
It boldly announces itself in all its noisy nothingness. It was the white flash that did the damage and produced the splinters.
That is all too often what “righting” racial injustice looks like in this country: a hollow pronouncement that follows the damage but doesn’t prevent its recurrence. 

The last sentence of the above quote says it all about justice in my country.  The lack of prosecution of the powerful for torture and the racially biased prosecution of black Americans, no matter how we might talk about them at the time or later, clearly instructs future generations that the powerful can commit crimes without fear of accountability, but the weak must fear prosecution whether they have done anything wrong or not.  No nation that lacks equal justice under the law can call itself civilized.  The United States tortures people and executes often innocent people.  What is civilized about that?

Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal

Torture

Dear Friends,

International and domestic law contain absolute bans on torture.  Any civilized and moral society must ban all torture - no exceptions.

United States law defines torture as follows:

(1) “torture” means an act committed by a person acting under the color of law specifically intended to inflict severe physical or mental pain or suffering (other than pain or suffering incidental to lawful sanctions) upon another person within his custody or physical control;(2) “severe mental pain or suffering” means the prolonged mental harm caused by or resulting from—(A) the intentional infliction or threatened infliction of severe physical pain or suffering;
(B) the administration or application, or threatened administration or application, of mind-altering substances or other procedures calculated to disrupt profoundly the senses or the personality;
(C) the threat of imminent death; or
(D) the threat that another person will imminently be subjected to death, severe physical pain or suffering, or the administration or application of mind-altering substances or other procedures calculated to disrupt profoundly the senses or personality;

There can be no doubt under this definition that waterboarding and other enhanced interrogation techniques used by the United States are torture.

Under International law, it is clear that the "just following orders" defense is invalid.  That rule was clearly established in the Nuremberg trials.

Vice President Cheney has admitted that he either ordered or condoned waterboarding and is therefore guilty of violating United States and International law and should be prosecuted along with all the others that condoned torture, ordered torture and carried out torture.

Failure to prosecute and hold torturers accountable for their action will reduce the moral authority of the United States, put us in the category of regimes that torture and be a clear signal to future Presidents and CIA Directors that torture is ok and will not be punished.

CIA Director John Brennan in his speech yesterday defending the CIA when questioned about the future indicated that the future use of torture is left to policy makers.  He was very clear that the CIA will carry out torture if directed to do so by the policy makers.  President Obama should immediately remove him from his position, clearly repudiate torture and prosecute all who ordered, condoned and engaged in torture.

Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal