Sunday, April 21, 2013

Truest statement of the week II

Executing people in batches like this is obscene.  It is like processing animals in a slaughterhouse. The criminal justice system in Iraq is still not functioning adequately, with numerous convictions based on confessions obtained under torture and ill-treatment, a weak judiciary and trial proceedings that fall short of international standards. The application of the death penalty in these circumstances is unconscionable, as any miscarriage of justice as a result of capital punishment cannot be undone.


---  Navi Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, on the non-stop executions in Iraq (last year at least 129 people were put to death in Iraq).