The Rule of Law? Really?

Is the United States a nation under the rule of law or the rule of emotion? Zacharias Moussaoui has been convicted and is currently in the sentencing phase of his trial. As I understand Virginia law, the jury will recommend sentencing, but it is finally up to the judge.

The goal of the prosecution in the case is to convince the jury to recommend the death penalty. I am not interested in dealing here with the death penalty itself (call or email me if you’d like to discuss that), but with the method the prosecution is using to guide the jury.

“America’s Mayor,” Rudy Giuliani was among the witnesses who offered testimony. Today (Monday) family members of victims of the September 11 attacks will weigh in. To my knowledge, and according to all the reports I have heard, none of these witnesses can connect Moussaoui to the attacks.

What each of these witnesses can do, however, is remind the jury how devastating that day was in American history. As if any of us can forget, the jury in Alexandria will be taken as close to those days of shock and confusion as possible.

Here is my concern: should Moussaoui’s life or death be determined on the basis of how bad 12 people feel about how extreme the September 11 tragedy was? Is the death penalty about severe payment for crimes that we feel really bad about?

Perhaps Virginia has some criteria for legally determining which capital crimes are punishable by death and which are not; most states do. Even if I support the death penalty, I surely don’t support it’s application for crimes on the basis of which ones most disturb us.

After all, they tell us the United States is governed by the rule of law. Unless, perhaps, it helps to make the jury feel really bad about something. Then it is ok to be ruled by emotion.