Author: Danielle Levy

I read that Cameron Douglas, Michael Douglas’30-year old son was arrested for drug possession again and that the amount of the methamphetamines found was such he’s being charged with selling and distribution. If convicted the penalty is a minimum of 10 years and a maximum of life. “What makes an adult brought up with every advantage engage in drug selling?” I asked a friend. “Easy,” she said, “When you have an iconic father and grandfather, a stepmother who’s not only close to your age but a sex-pot, and your father was a lousy parent, who are you?” Her point was that you do what you have to do in order to establish your identity as separate from that of your famous parents. All’s that has truth of course, but what about a ghetto or barrio kid who’s had lousy parenting, whose father is gone and whose mother is too busy working and spending 4 hours on the bus to get to work to offer much guidance, who has no role model and no opportunities? That person struggles for identity too. When he or she ends up selling drugs, there’s no one to offer an easy explanation of why they did what they did. There will also be no one to pay experienced lawyers and his chances of ending up serving 10 years to life will be, if not certain, at least very much higher.

Abdul Qadeer Khan is the Pakistani former metallurgist who confessed that over a 15 year period he provided countries like North Korea, Iran and Libya with the designs and technology for them to produce fuel for nuclear weapons—not to speak of his role in the development of Pakistan itself becoming a nuclear power. Without him would the danger of nuclear proliferation be as threatening? For a time Mr. Khan was in prison, then went into house arrest and was later freed albeit with certain restrictions. Recently, the restrictions were lifted, then reinstated. Mr. Khan is now appealing the reinstatement on grounds he feels like a “prisoner.”
Most people don’t know Mr. Khan’s name or have forgotten he existed, although his actions have harmed millions, if not the planet itself. We currently think of a murderer as the worst of the worst and yet couldn’t one say that Mr. Khan’s actions are worse than those of a murderer? More than an example of a true criminal, Mr. Khan challenges us perhaps to rethink crime in terms of the magnitude of the harm rather than its nature.

Eric Holder, the U.S Attorney General has appointed John Durham as special prosecutor to look into the facts of the recently released 259 pages of CIA memos and reports on interrogation and torture. He is to decide whether certain individuals will be indicted for having authorized and/or conducted torture. An administration putting itself in a position to condemn a previous one is no light matter. No matter what Durham decides the issue is so fraught with politics that it will be used and seen in political terms. But there is a question underlying this kind of inquiry, one that is philosophical, ethical and spiritual, that goes beyond and above politics: that is what does war mean and what does it make us do? And if war makes us do horrible things, must we do them? It may not be a new question, but it is a necessary one. As such the inquiry, no matter what else it does, reveals our struggle with the consequences of war. That makes it as important as it is essential.

Betsey Wright, a former chief of staff for then Governor Bill Clinton has recently been arrested and charged with attempting to smuggle a box cutter, a pocket knife, tweezers and tattoo needles into Arkansas death row. In all, she faces 51 felony charges.
Ms Wright not only broke the law, she was rather stupid, it seems. With 51 felony charges, she’s sure to serve jail time. There are those who’ll say she asked for it. Perhaps, but isn’t there a better way? Shouldn’t the law make a distinction between a contract murderer and Ms. Wright? Her contraband was confiscated, the potential harm averted. Even if it hadn’t, what was it to be used for? Given the restraints of death row, could these tools really have led to an escape? But that’s not even the point. The point is that people like Betsy Wright shouldn’t be sentenced like common criminals. Could they not perform community service of some kind? Could they not be made to serve society in some way instead of being incarcerated at taxpayers’ expenses?