death for betrayal

as wrong as this is, there is something underlying that is completely right. in a town outside of shanghai a public official has been given a death sentence for accepting millions of dollars in bribes. death to a public servant for bribes?!

(click on the header to see the story in the la times.) it is extreme to put someone to death essentially for greed but relative to our society, it is a little bit refreshing too. i mean, i am not bloodthirsty or anything but in my country we put people in jail for long periods of time for possessing drugs.

as a crime drug use and possession tends to have one victim, the user or, the self. distribution of drugs is clearly a more serious crime. however, in the u.s. the crimes of public officials tend to have especially light sentences. scooter libby was convicted of four crimes, one count of obstruction of justice, two counts of perjury and one count of making false statements to federal investigators. randy "duke" cunningham took more than $2 million in bribes and was given a sentence of 100 months in prison. he is incarcerated in a minimum security satellite camp at the united states penitentiary in tucson, arizona.

just as with the vice mayor in suzhou, libby's and cunningham's crimes affect a great number of people. in libby's case, it is likely his crimes hid criminal acts by the president and/or vice president of the united states. it cost one cia agent her career and the united states' taxpayers millions of dollars to investigate and prosecute the case. cunningham's crimes are perhaps even more far-reaching. much of his congressional work had to be reviewed after his resignation because his behavior called into question all of the government contracts he had been involved with. by accepting bribes, he may have accepted inferior products or certainly over-priced military products thereby jeopardizing the mission of our military, which depended on him in his role to conscientiously do his best on their behalf.

libby's sentence was commuted by president bush and cunningham, in july of this year, petitioned the president for a pardon. (in my humble opinion, it is likely bush will pardon cunningham before he leaves office in january of '09.)

death is too great a sentence for any of these criminals. it is a barbaric response to their crimes. that said, their crimes affect more people than many who get more severe sentences here in the u.s. i would advocate for a life sentence in cases like the vice mayor or for cunningham or libby. betraying public trust is a serious crime that affects many people. one who would take public office should be acutely aware of the gravity of their position as well as the penalties for betraying it.