Killing 259 people isn’t enough to merit the death penalty.
The predictable coda to the Lockerbie bomber being turned over is that he’ll get a nice prison retirement plan with full medical and dental. Killing 259 people isn’t enough to merit the death penalty.
A federal magistrate judge ordered the suspect in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, to be held without bond and scheduled hearings to assign a defense lawyer and determine whether he should remain in custody until trial.
Abu Agila Mohammad Masud Kheir Al-Marimi, 71, is charged with making the bomb that destroyed the plane and faces three federal charges of destroying an aircraft or vehicle used in foreign commerce resulting in death. The Justice Department announced Sunday that Masud was in custody.
Resulting in the deaths of 259 people.
Each count carries a maximum penalty of life in prison or the death penalty and a $250,000 fine. But Assistant U.S. Attorney Erik Kenerson said because the death penalty was not available in 1988, the government would not pursue that penalty if Masud is convicted.
That’s a nonsensical argument.
The Warren court claiming that the death penalty was unconstitutional was, in any case, a response to the specific implementation in 1972. It became constitutional again in 1976. The federal death penalty was only formally reinstated in 1988 in the sense of legal codes, but all of this is beside the point since Al-Marimi is not an American citizen, he’s a foreign enemy terrorist.
Ex parte Quirin settled this already. The Bush administration however failed to properly implement it. The constitution vested the authority to “define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offenses against the Law of Nations.” That’s what international Islamic terrorism is.
But the Biden administration, which halted the federal death penalty, and is part of a radical faction that worked to destroy the War on Terror and enable Islamic terrorism can hardly be expected to do anything else except perpetuate their treasons.
Article posted with permission from Daniel Greenfield
