During the week of April 19, the government of Rwanda executed 27 people convicted of participating in the 1994 massacres. All the defendants were Hutus who were charged with killing their Tutsi compatriots.
By most accounts, because of limited resources and the sheer volume of such cases, these individuals did not receive what may even remotely resemble a fair trial. Amnesty International and other human-rights groups have condemned both the callous disregard for due process and the manner in which these executions were carried out: a firing squad in full view of a cheering audience.
There were measured protestations from the U.S. government, which criticized not the policy of executions itself but the lack of a fair trial.
The U.S. finds itself in a dilemma in such matters. It is the only Western country still committed to killing people as a form of punishment. As a result, America has lost its moral authority on this subject. How can it criticize countries such as Rwanda for carrying out executions, albeit without due process, while death chambers are working overtime at U.S. prisons in places like Texas and Louisiana?
The only way the U.S. can restore its credibility in criticizing such barbarism is if it retires that anachronism called the death penalty.
