A nation of mercy

Just got back from watching United 93, which unfortunately is at odds with the Bush Administration's official line on the military response to the hijackings Mark Bingham, was a Cal rugby player who joined other passengers on United Flight 93 in storming the cockpit.

In a statement to the national press after the jury in the Zacarias Moussaoui trial found that "the missing hijacker" was eligible for the death penalty, Hoagland said that she did not believe Moussaoui should be put to death, despite her support for the death penalty. She said:

"We in America can now demonstrate that we are a nation of mercy, as well as a nation of laws and justice. We've already demonstrated our justice by allowing him to condemn himself out of his own mouth. And if we can transcend the kind of hatred he has shown toward us by allowing him to live, we will have given him a higher standard by which to live."