Mercy elevates humanity above terrorists

On Aug. 20, Kenny MacAskill, cabinet secretary for justice, announced the nation of Scotland's release on humanitarian grounds of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi. To date, Megrahi is the sole person convicted of a dire act of terrorism -- the Dec. 21, 1988, bombing of a commercial airplane which crashed in Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people.

According to MacAskill, Megrahi -- although he had served but eight years of his life imprisonment -- was returned to his home nation of Libya pursuant to "compassionate release" provisions of the Prisoners and Criminal Proceedings (Scotland) Act of 1993, which permits discharge of prisoners facing imminent death due to illness regardless of the nature and severity of their crimes. Megrahi, who suffers from highly advanced cancer, is not expected to survive more than three months.

Understandably, the Scottish government's decision has drawn extensive and vehement denunciation, claims of corruption, accusations of unconscionable insensitivity and assertions of profoundly poor judgment. One of the many detractors is FBI Director Robert S. Meuller, who sent to Secretary MacAskill a scathing letter which has been widely published as well as posted on the FBI's official web site as a "press release."

Among other transgressions, Meuller accused the secretary -- and implicitly the government of Scotland which MacAskill serves -- of "mak[ing] a mockery of the rule of law," "giv[ing] comfort to terrorists," and betraying the victims of the Lockerbie bombing.

The incensed, indignant and rude criticism typified by Meuller's letter rejects flatly the possibility that Scotland may have acted out of principles so noble, so selfless and so steeped in mercy that they transcend even the just retribution and fair punishment meted against Mr. Megrahi for his horrific crime.

To the contrary, we show the world true, enviable humanity when we temper -- not obliterate but mollify -- justifiable vengeance with fairness, compassion, charity and mercy. By keeping faith with such principles, Humanity all the more condemns the evil acts for which Megrahi properly was tried and convicted.

I am willing to accept, based on the present facts, that the release of Megrahi was not a quid pro quo for an untoward bargain such as favorable access to Libyan oil. As Secretary MacAskill accented in his statement, "The perpetration of an atrocity and outrage cannot and should not be a basis for losing sight of who we are, the values we seek to uphold, and the faith and beliefs by which we seek to live. ... Our beliefs dictate that justice be served, but mercy be shown."

I agree that the strength of a nation's commitment to morality and justice ought not be abandoned because the beneficiary, here a terrorist, denied the same morality to his victims.

It is not that Megrahi deserves the comfort of spending his final days in familiar surroundings with family and friends. Rather, it is that a just society, believing in mercy, will grant him the compassion he could not find within himself. That is why we are better than the terrorists.

Our nation too faces such crises of honor in the wake of heartless terrorism. The United States is committed to the rule of law, the paramount concept of which, "due process," is enshrined as overarching in our Constitution.

Numerous Supreme Court decisions, including many written by so-called "conservative" justices, accent that "due process" is grounded on concepts of "fundamental fairness." Therefore, deeply moral aspects of decency, justice, humanity and, I think, mercy are not only national goals, but part of the highest law of the Constitution itself.

Scotland's release of Megrahi reminds us that proper loyalty to the profound ethical principles that define us as a "nation of laws" requires dedication, courage and fortitude.

Such steadfastness to principle is tested especially when, due to justified anger, fear or convenience, we are greatly tempted to forsake such exemplars as shunning torture, bringing detained persons to trial, allowing defendants to confront witnesses and evidence against them, requiring conviction based only on proof "beyond reasonable doubt" and demanding specific probable cause to violate the privacy of conversations, papers and other intimate things.

Accordingly, I wish that in his letter so steeped with anger and accusations, our FBI director could at least have acknowledged, if not embraced, that Scotland's difficult decision might have been based on good and noble motives.

I agree that keeping Megrahi in prison would have been neither immoral nor inappropriate. But, by placing what Shakespeare denoted "the quality of mercy" above all else, Scotland elevated humanity's love of compassion far above the loutish crowds in Libya who have hailed Megrahi a returning hero.

In so doing, the best of humanity has defied the efforts of the worst. Compassionate humanity was not provoked to compromise, nor to retreat, nor to scrap sublime principles.

To do otherwise would have given the terrorists the full victory they seek. Therefore, keeping faith with mercy is a highly fitting tribute to those who have suffered at immorality's hands.

Peter B. Bayer is a professor at UNLV's William S. Boyd School of Law. He may be reached at peter.bayer@unlv.edu.