Death penalty for Saddam Hussein: Yes or No?

In a recent interview with the Italian news agency ANSA, Cardinal Paul Poupard, president of the pontifical councils for Interreligious Dialogue and for Culture, said no one -- including former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein -- should be excecuted.

"The Catechism of the Catholic Church, the church itself and the pope reaffirm that every person is a creature of God and that no one but the creator can claim to be the lord of the life and death of another," the cardinal said.

This has caused a row, as you can imagine, as the church has not preached that the death penalty is always wrong. Pope John Paul II explained this in one of the more famous quotes from his encyclical "Gospel of Life:"

The primary purpose of the punishment which society inflicts is "to redress the disorder caused by the offense." Public authority must redress the violation of personal and social rights by imposing on the offender an adequate punishment for the crime, as a condition for the offender to regain the exercise of his or her freedom. In this way authority also fulfills the purpose of defending public order and ensuring people's safety, while at the same time offering the offender an incentive and help to change his or her behavior and be rehabilitated.

It is clear that for these purposes to be achieved, the nature and extent of the punishment must be carefully evaluated and decided upon, and ought not go to the extreme of executing the offender except in cases of absolute necessity: In other words, when it would not be possible otherwise to defend society. Today however, as a result of steady improvements in the organization of the penal system, such cases are very rare if not practically nonexistent. (Pope John Paul II, "Evangelium Vitae," 1995)

If any case could fall under the "very rare" category, it is this one. Hussein is responsible for the murders of thousands upon thousands of his own people. Yet we do have the capability to remove Hussein from society and put him away behind bars for the rest of his life.

Does the case of Saddam Hussein fall under John Paul II's "very rare" category or do you believe that he should not be executed but rather spend the rest of his life in prison?