By the time we wake up in Europe tomorrow, Teresa Lewis will probably be dead.
In an act that hands useful propaganda to President Ahmadinejad of Iran, she is due to be executed for organising the murder of her husband and stepson.
She was clearly implicated in the crime and therefore could hardly complain if she spent all or most of the rest of her life in jail.
But the haste with which prosecutors seized on the plea bargains offered by her two co-accused, condemning her alone to death, and the disregard shown for evidence that Lewis is "borderline mentally retarded", enables reasonable people to deliver a guilty verdict on US justice.
Lewis did not, according to her counsel, have the mental capacity to organise such a crime; indeed, before the other two defendants came to their squalid deal, one of them had named the other as the true organiser.
It is true that my opposition to the death penalty would lead some to dismiss as predictable any words, from here, on behalf of one condemned woman.
It is also true that the Iranians choose a more barbaric form of state homicide than the lethal injection awaiting Lewis, and add a spot of flogging for good measure. But President Ahmadinejad has inevitably been emboldened by the American case.
When next some American politician or pundit pops up to criticise the Iranians for having wanted to stone to death Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani for adultery (with the added suspicion of complicity in her husband's murder; both allegations denied by her), the charge of hypocrisy is going to be hard to dodge unless the individual also deplored the Lewis death sentence.
Recent Comments