Many kinds of miracles exist in this world. Frankly, I believe that coming back to life from death is definitely one of the most dramatic miracles that a person can ever experience. Furthermore, if a “” resurrection” involves an execution, the story would be even more unbelievable than any kind of resurrection. However, it willwould also leave the dilemma of “executing twice.” In other words, should we regard the return as the satisfied payment of his crimeirrelevant to the sentence, or should the government proceed to finish the unfinished sentence?
In this October, the this unbelievable story occurred at in Iran. Alireza M, the Iranian drug smuggler, was arrested three years ago and sentenced to death by hanging. Unlike most countries that employ the modern hanging method, which ensures quick and definite death by fracturing one’s neck, Iran still uses the traditional hanging method, which literally hangs a convict until he or she suffocates. On Oct.ober 9th, hHis sentence was carried out Oct. 9,, and he was hanged by the neck for approximately 12twelve minutes. The doctor announced his death, and his body was carried downtransported to the morgue. After the announcement, the judge, the warden, and the doctor signed the paperwork that proved his death. A day later, when the a morgue employee opened removed Alireza’s morguebody to transfer the body it to his family, he observed that moisture formed near Alireza’s mouth. The employee immediately reported the survival of Alireza to the nearest hospital,, so the and medical personnel evacuatedtransported Alireza to the hospital for proper examination. The status of Alireza was surprisingly fine, so much so sothat medical practitcioners pronounced that the doctor diagnosed that he will be fully recovered he willwould make a full recovery with enough nutrition and rest.
Literally, Alireza came back to life after knocking at the door of afterlifeon heaven’s door. The sshowStudy have slightly more of a chance of surviving in traditional hangings than modern hangings. Cconvicts that chances of even “being alive” arewere very slim, and no one really expecteds someone to survive from the execution. Yet, not only did he survived from the hanging, but he also did not even havesurvived without permanent brain damage.
However, the problem occurred when the Judicial Authorities of IranIranian high courts received the news. Their initial response was that the execution must be carried out again. Nourollah Aziz-Mohammadi, thea senior judge ofin Iran, commented that the law must ensures Alireza’s death. SIn supporting of judicial authorities’ argument, Lotfollah Safi Golpaygani, the grand ayatollah who is an expert at in Shariah law, asserted that the sentence is still viable even if Alireza came back to life.
Opposing the argument of Iran’s judicial authorities, many human rights activists claimed that the government should not proceed carry outto another execution of Alireza. Philip Luther, director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa programme, commented,: “Carrying out a second execution on a man who somehow managed to survive 12 minutes of hanging –— who was certified as dead and whose body was about to be turned over to his family –— is simply ghastly. It betrays a basic lack of humanity that sadly underpins much of Iran’s Iran’s justice system.” Even though many human rights activists signed a petition for releasing the release of Alireza, the expectation of Alireza’s status was grim because international organizations have no authority to intervene.
Fortunately, Alireza was granted with new life because Lotfollah Safi Golpaygani commented that his religious interpretation should not be applied to this case. because In his interpretation, only thievery, rape, and adultery are strictly bounded by Shariah law. Mostafa Pourmohammadi, the Mminister of Jjustice, reassured that the execution will not take place.
The worst- case scenario did not take place. High authorities of Iran came into the senserealized that executing somebody twice is extremely inhumane. However, is their decision to spare Alireza’s life right? If Alireza iswere American and the same incident occurs occurred on the U.S., soil, shouldwould we spare his life?
Yes, I agree that the decision to spare his life is correct. Iranians may have different perspectives onregarding their justice system and criminal sentencinge, but I will discuss the matter of executing twice from thebased on American perspective, from the perspective of the Constitution of the United States. The Eighth Amendment of the Constitution specifies that cruel and unusual punishments are prohibited. The Mmorality of execution may be debatable, but many will definitely agree that a tremendous amount of physical and psychological pain is inflicted on convicts when they are executed. Therefore, the fact the fact that Alireza’s the execution did not take his life does not necessarily mean that he hadexperienced less any lessamount of pain than any other convicts. Consequently, if the judicial authority proceeded with executing him again, that would surely double the amount of physical and psychological pain. At the very least, under the Constitution, executing twice will would be cruel and unusual because of the simple fact that more amount of pain is inflicted to carry out the same sentence.
Still, because he was sentenced to death, I believe he is not completely off out of the hook because he iswas sentenced to death. The Ssurface goal of a death sentence may be to punishing a convict criminal for his or her crime, but it can be also interpreted as permanent banishment from the society. Therefore, the Iranian government still has its duty to separate Alireza from the society. Although I personally believe that the sentence is ridiculously harsh, I acknowledge that Iranian law is still final the supreme rule onover Iranian soil. Therefore, the only option to satisfy both human rights and Iranian laws is to lowereduce Alireza’s punishment from death to life in prison. TOnly that way, the Iranian government prevents convicts criminals from harming society as well aswhile still respecting basic human rights.
Alex Cho is a sophomore political science major at Drexel University. He can be contacted at op-ed@thetriangle.org.
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