Megrahi - how do people feel about the release?

[Rapscallion]

Megrahi - the man convicted for the Lockerbie bombing - was released on 'compassionate grounds', what with him being terminally ill from cancer.

One prominent US newspaper has lambasted the English system (it was actually Scottish, but the difference is minimal) and said it's massively damaged the 'special relationship' between the US and UK.

So, was it right or wrong? Should we measure ourselves by our acts of compassion, or by our acts of vengeance?

From what I've seen, the majority of people opposed to letting him go are opined this way because of their stance on the death sentence. If someone is pro-death penalty, they want him to die in prison. Does that ring any bells for others?

Rapscallion

[crazylegs]

I'm tied. While he showed no compassion whatsoever to his victims (to the extent he only dropped his appeal to ease the compassionate release) the scots might have shown they were better if it were not for Jack Straws comments...

Leaves a sour taste in the mouth actually.

[Slytovhand]

What did Jack Straw say?

I don't get why expecting him to live out his sentence is considered 'vengeance' - other than to create an appeal to emotion (or ridicule).

Why is only 1 of those 2 options presented the 'right' one (ie, compassionate), while the other one is labelled as bad?

He did the crime, he was sentenced and punished. Part of that sentence means, by extension, suffering all through it.

As said, he showed no compassion to his victims. A large part of the jail system is to try and get the criminal to understand remorse, to make them want to partake in society again... seems that if he does that, he just might find it more 'noble' (certainly, more holy) to go out in flames! I wonder if anyone has thought of that... "I'm going to die shortly anyway, may as well put it to good use".

[Rapscallion]

What did Jack Straw say?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/8239572.stm

In short, despite Brown denying there were any aspects of cosying up to the Iranians for an oil deal, Straw reckons there were and said so publicly.

I'm torn on the issue. I can see that the justice system needs to be supported by locking murderers up and expecting to see them remain behind bars. However, the more forward-thinking part of me says that you've got to show some sort of give to get some. Acts such as shooting down or bombing a plane are generally performed by the die-hard elements. There's no real point in trying to give them any leeway, since they won't listen no matter what. However, the less-staunch supporters of theirs may be swayed towards a more-peaceful future. Cuts off the support for the extremists, but it takes generations to have an effect.

Rapscallion