A Tale of Two Executions...Bittersweet Justice, posted by Meosha Eaton

Article by WorldNews.com Correspondent Dallas Darling. As the world rejoices for Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani who just had her sentence commuted, it must also mourn for Teresa Lewis who died of a lethal injection. Whereas Ashtiani, an Iranian woman sentenced to death for adultery and for murdering her husband, will not receive the death penalty, Teresa Lewis was executed at a correctional facility in Virginia. It is a tale of two executions, one in Iran and one in the United States of America. In Iran, the story ends with hope. In the United States, the tale ends in tragedy. Ashtiani's death sentence caused a global outcry among human rights activists and political leaders in the United States. While the European Union called the sentence "barbaric," Brazil offered Ashtiani asylum. In the United States, politicians railed against Iran, but there was little protest when Lewis was executed and pronounced dead. Neither was there a global outcry over her borderline mentally ill condition, and what some claimed was the use of faulty and contradictory evidence during court proceedings. The European Union did send a letter to the governor of Virginia asking for clemency on behalf of Lewis. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called the execution a travesty of justice when he visited New York to speak at the United Nations. Even though Lewis appeared to be spiritually transformed while in prison, singing Christian hymns and being an inspiration to others, she was still put to death by a cold and calculating state machine and its court system. Ashtiani's case, on the other hand, seemed to be used as a political tool by the United States to denigrate Iran's political leaders and to try and shame the Islamic Republic. Iran does not separate religious matters and values from criminal or civil maters. Instead, the Koran codifies a body of law known as the sharia, which brings all aspects of life together. Not only was her possible execution used to bolster United States-led economic sanctions against Iran, but it was used to denounce Iran's peaceful intent to pursue nuclear energy. When considering the recent invasions and occupations of two Muslim nations by the United States, including long-term wars that have caused the deaths and executions of hundreds of thousands of Muslims, one must wonder what kind of justice exists in the United States. It should also cause one to question the United States as guardian of unalienable rights and justice. Even more so, it appears Ashtiani's case was used to make sure Iran would not secure a seat on the United Nation's new women's agency. As Iran reevaluates its sharia laws and some of its crimes that are punishable by death (enforced in Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution), the U.S. might want too reconsider its own secular codes and death penalties. It may even want to broaden its perception of executions, to include senseless wars and economic sanctions. Sanctions that leads to either starvation, or airliners crashing and killing innocent passengers. Preventing a nation from pursuing its nuclear enrichment program for health care reasons, which has the potential of saving tens of thousands of lives, is also a form of execution. It is obvious the United States, as a global and imperial conqueror and executioner, has above all else, executed diplomacy and peace. Around the world, it has the most powerful firing squads, the most reproachful gallows, the most technologically advanced electric chairs, and the most lethal injections. These poisonous injections distort yet reality itself. Because of this, America's moral fiber and spirit has been executed. For a State, like America, to take a person's life when it and its political and social environments are extremely corrupt, is premeditated revenge and murder. While people and human rights activists around the globe can rejoice for Ashtiani and Iran's decision of commutation, they can only grieve for Lewis and the United States. It is a grief, though, that should not only mourn for Lewis' execution, but for the hundreds of thousands of other concealed and hidden executions, due to perceptional domination. Imperial democracy, when mixed with violence and militarism and the ultimate insanity of war, always makes for a lethal injection into the rest of the world.