http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/08/20/saudi.arabia.paralysis/index.html wrote:
Amnesty International on Friday urged Saudi Arabian authorities not to paralyze a man as punishment for his having paralyzed someone else, allegedly during a fight.
The Saudi newspaper Okaz reported that the judge in the case had sent letters to several hospitals in Saudi Arabia asking if they could sever a man's spinal cord, as the man he allegedly stabbed had requested and, under sharia law, was his right to seek.
[...]
The paralyzed man, 22-year-old Abdul-Aziz al-Mitairy, told Okaz that the accused stabbed him in the back with a large knife during a fight more than two years ago. "The accused confessed to the crime in front of police, resulting in a general sentence of seven months," he told the newspaper.
[...]
It is up to the court to decide whether to impose the paralysis punishment or sentence the man to imprisonment, financial compensation, or flogging, it said.
[...]
Other sentences of retribution in the kingdom have included eye-gouging, tooth extraction, and death in cases involving murder, it said.
[...]
Under Islamic law, compassion is an important virtue for any judge, Ahmed said. "However harsh the punishment would be in tribal law, an eye for an eye, the compassion element that must be exercised by the judge overrides it, and I'm afraid we don't see much of that in cases like this where, very often, the victim becomes twice punished," he added.
The Saudi newspaper Okaz reported that the judge in the case had sent letters to several hospitals in Saudi Arabia asking if they could sever a man's spinal cord, as the man he allegedly stabbed had requested and, under sharia law, was his right to seek.
[...]
The paralyzed man, 22-year-old Abdul-Aziz al-Mitairy, told Okaz that the accused stabbed him in the back with a large knife during a fight more than two years ago. "The accused confessed to the crime in front of police, resulting in a general sentence of seven months," he told the newspaper.
[...]
It is up to the court to decide whether to impose the paralysis punishment or sentence the man to imprisonment, financial compensation, or flogging, it said.
[...]
Other sentences of retribution in the kingdom have included eye-gouging, tooth extraction, and death in cases involving murder, it said.
[...]
Under Islamic law, compassion is an important virtue for any judge, Ahmed said. "However harsh the punishment would be in tribal law, an eye for an eye, the compassion element that must be exercised by the judge overrides it, and I'm afraid we don't see much of that in cases like this where, very often, the victim becomes twice punished," he added.
Damn. Ok, I get the old testement. It was pretty hip and conformist for its day but jesus, can you imagine a world where you get to wrong the person that wrong you?
Neighbor borrow your car while his is in the shop and he gets drunk and crashes it? You get to take a ball bat to his car, while he watches.
Could we live in a world where the punishment fit the crime? Do you think it would make people stop and think about the things the do to each other? Or would it just be chaos and naturally on pay per view?
