Proper Execution?

As anyone who turned on the news today or yesterday is aware, Saddam Hussein is dead.  He was hanged just before dawn, Baghdad time, and thus his sentence was carried out.  Watching the video, we see an old man, slightly afraid, but resigned to his fate.  He almost seems confused.  Grainy footage of his body, wrapped in a white shroud and spattered with what looks like blood, corroborate the news. 

I confess to finding out last night, and the first word from my mouth was a savage, "Good."  My gut reaction to the news was the satisfaction of knowing that an opponent has been defeated. 

But there was another thought that entered my head, put forth by one of the people I was with at the time.  He said that he felt sorrow that the man had to be executed.  He felt it was a shame that things had to go to those lengths.  And as he said that, I re-examined my position.

I realized that, contrary to my initial gut reaction, my thoughts and feelings ran much along the same lines.  Is it better to execute a man for his crimes, or to imprison him for life?  Watching the video of his final steps to the gallows filled me with pity.  Pity for a murdering despot who had destabilized the Middle East for decades.  Pity for a man who attempted to eradicate an entire people.  I pitied the old, broken Saddam Hussein.  I found myself hoping that he died well. 

Why?  Why is it that despite his opposition to my country and his obstruction of the goals of peace did I find myself wishing that we might have kept him imprisoned until his natural death?  Is it because of the proclamations of his martyrdom that followed soon after?  Yes, this death will steel the resolve of men who might kill more of our soldiers.  Was it the idea that every man, regardless of religion, race, past crimes or evil intent is still a man with a human soul and therefore deserving of human dignity?  I think that what happened is the Catholic part of me spoke up, quietly and with some force.

Now, I'm no Sister Helen Prejean (incidentally, there's another Sean Penn reference...I think I have a problem).  I believe that the death penalty is justified in some instances, and that sometimes its use is absolutely necessary.  According to my understanding of the Church's position on the death penalty, it should be meted out only in those cases of extreme violence and mayhem when incarceration would not adequately protect the public from further attacks.  With our prison system, this is not so much an issue.  It's pretty hard to escape from those things.

But this article I found also made me think that perhaps our Church leaders are drawing a line in the sand.  In that article, the spokesman for the Vatican reiterates the Church's opposition to the death penalty, but it makes no mention of the circumstances in which it is acceptable.  There is a movement in the Church to put capital punishment on the same tier as abortion, but I can't reasonably get behind that.

I think we have it right...rarely acceptable in civilized society, but surely an avenue.

What worries me the most is that gut reaction I had.  That savage, leering part of me that would have mocked his death to his face, forgetting that he is still a person.  I find myself worried that not enough people take the time to examine their feelings and realize why the death penalty should be rare.  It's for our own humanity's sake that we not get too comfortable with it.