The Moussaoui verdict: We all won

Zacarias Moussaoui was sentenced this month to life imprisonment without parole. Outside the courtroom he is reported to have clapped his hands and said, "America, you lost. I won." If he meant that because he escaped the death penalty the people of the United States lost, he's mistaken. We won. What we stand for won. More importantly, the sanctity of life won.

We say life is sacred. We say the taking of life is wrong. Our religions teach it. Our sense of human dignity teaches it. How then can we possibly justify cold-blooded murder by the state?

Capital punishment is the premeditated taking of a human life. We rationalize it by saying that some actions are so horrible that they justify taking a person's life. Not so. Not in cold blood. Not when there's an alternative.

There was a time, when I was young, when the sentence of "life in prison without possibility of parole" was not yet an option. At that time, I reluctantly supported capital punishment. There are some acts so horrible, so heinous that the person who commits them should never be allowed back into society.

But today, we can lock a person up and know that he or she will not be released. Today, there is no excuse for a death penalty.

Many would argue that the death penalty should be abolished because on occasion mistakes are made, and an innocent person is put to death. It's a good point. You can't "undo" an execution. But there is a larger issue. Life is sacred. Murder is wrong.

How do we say, with any moral authority, to people so desperate they are willing to become suicide bombers that taking human life is not the answer? One way is by saying that while we hold Moussaoui guilty, we will not kill him. Cold-blooded killing is wrong. It is always wrong.

We might even wish to consider which countries of the world still have the death penalty and which do not. It's an interesting lesson.

As a people, we have every right, and indeed an obligation to our children, to separate the wrongdoer from society. We have no right to murder. Not even when we're angry. Not even when a person has done something vile and loathsome.

The people who put together the attack of9/11 were outraged at the United States. They thought their despicable act of mass murder was justified. We ought to set an example. No matter how outraged you are, murder is not the answer. It is never the answer.

We all won when the jury said we will not take this man's life.

Steven Greenebaum of Lynnwood, former executive director of Citizens for Environmental Responsibility, is a graduate student at Seattle University, preparing to become a Unitarian Universalist minister. He has been active in environmental and social-justice issues for more than 30 years.