DETROIT -- Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who tried to blow up a Detroit-bound international flight with and underwear bomb on Christmas Day 2009 on behalf of al-Qaida, was sentenced to life in prison without parole Thursday.Read the rest here.
The hearing before federal Judge Nancy Edmunds was an open platform for Abdulmutallab and passengers and crew of Northwest Airlines Flight 253 who wanted to speak.
Abdulmutallab, 25, the son of a wealthy Nigerian banker, pleaded guilty in October and admitted he was on a suicide mission for al-Qaida when he tried to detonate explosive chemicals hidden in his underwear minutes before the plane landed at Detroit Metropolitan Airport.
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7 comments:
I don't know how I feel about this. The man was obviously demented, and no one actually got harmed. I am having trouble seeing how justice is being served by simply chucking into the general prison population. I doubt he'll live very long.
He's demented because he follows his religion? Is his interpretation all that uncommon? No, I don't think he should be rewarded for having a defective bomb, his intention was and is to kill, and so he should receive the sentence that he now has: a lifetime to repent in prison, then the judgment of his conscience.
I find our penal system rather bizarre. US taxpayers will be paying for the food, shelter and medical care of a hostile Nigerian national for the next several decades.
The Wikipedia article on ADX Florence (aka "SuperMax") is interesting reading. Have a look at the list of (in)famous residents. The URL is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADX_Florence
I say he was demented because of the stuff he was rambling at the sentencing hearing. He was saying stuff like Osama Bin Laden is still alive and completely nonsensical stuff that I do not believe Islam teaches. I am not saying that he shouldn't be held accountable, but life without parole? That seems a bit excessive for someone who did not succeed in what he was doing, nor could he have, as the "bomb" in his underwear could not possibly have gone off if you understand anything about physics. I see no way in the current prison system for repentance if there is no possibility of parole.
Let's call this sentence for what it really is: vengeance, plain and simple.
Archer
I am not sure I can agree. We are talking about attempted mass murder by a totally unrepentant fanatic. I don't give credit for his failing. He gets an A for effort. I generally draw the line at capital punishment but I think that if a principal of justice is that the punishment should fit the crime, a life sentence strikes me as pretty fair in this case.
Here is a victim impact statement given by attorney Kurt Haskell, one of the passengers on board the plane. I find it of great interest. So should everyone else:
http://haskellfamily.blogspot.co.nz/2012/02/victim-impact-statement.html
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