Hanging regretted as ‘degrading’, if not unjust

THE EXECUTION of the former Iraqi President, Saddam Hussein, “cannot be called unjust”, provided he had had a fair trial and a proper opportunity to appeal, the Bishop of Lichfield said this week. A deliberate murderer “immediately forfeited his or her right to life”. [...]

The Bishop of Chelmsford, the Rt Revd John Gladwin, regretted the televising of graphic images from the execution, but hoped that they might “raise in the public mind how offensive and morally unacceptable this form of justice is”, The Sunday Times reported. “It is degrading to the people who have to do it, and degrading to the society that requires it.” Read more