Geaghan: A few updates

L'affair Papon

From Paris: Le Monde reports that Maurice Papon was buried on Wednesday with his Légion d'honneur medal, despite widespread opposition. Papon was responsible for the deportation of 1,690 French Jews to Auschwitz during World War II and the mass killing of Algerian demonstrators in Paris in 1961 when he was chief of the Paris police. Libération's story is headlined: "Papon, outside the law even in the tomb."

The Kouchner law

France has its "loi Kouchner," which allows for the early release of prisoners for humanitarian reasons, but what about the U.S.? Executive clemency is our rough equivalent, though it provides no real criteria for deciding whether to release aged or critically-ill prisoners. For example, Oregon's clemency law (ORS 144.649) simply states: "Upon such conditions and with such restrictions and limitations as the Governor thinks proper, the Governor may grant reprieves, commutations and pardons, after convictions, for all crimes and may remit, after judgment therefor, all penalties and forfeitures." Interestingly enough, Oregon law (ORS 144.787) also states that the "youth, advanced age or physical disability" of the victim may be considered an "aggravating circumstance" that can justify a harsher sentence. But the "youth, advanced age or physical disability" of the defendant isn't recognized as a "mitigating circumstance" that could result in a reduced sentence.

State clemency boards are unlikely to recommend clemency without a "compelling justification" or a showing of "extraordinary circumstances."

On the federal level, the power of granting pardons and reprieves is granted to the president under Article II, Section 2, of the Constitution, "except in cases of impeachment" (1). During the last thirty years, about 10% of the 600 applications for pardons have been approved.

Road rage revisited

The irate driver who threw a cup of McDonald's soda into another car had her sentence reduced by a Virginia judge from two years in prison to probation. She has been in jail since January 4th but will be released as soon as she clears a warrant from a Mississippi court on an unrelated matter. (Maybe, for now, this result will rein in the endless variations on "McDonald's"—like "McMissile," "McWoman," "McJail" and "McProbation"—that seem to amuse the media every time the company makes the news.)

NOTES

(1) Though the House Judiciary Committee voted in favor of impeachment, Richard Nixon was never formally impeached (or tried) on the House floor.

Update: Papon and the Kouchner law

A story in today's Paris Libération, headlined "One of the rare prisoners freed by the Kouchner law," describes a provision of the French code that authorized the early release of Maurice Papon from prison on humanitarian grounds. As detailed in Geagan's post on the subject, Papon was freed in 2002 after serving just three years of a ten-year sentence for crimes against humanity during World War II. The Kouchner law permits a suspension of the remaining sentence

"...of prisoners for whom it is established that they have developed a life-threatening pathology, or [when] their long-term state of health is incompatible with their maintenance in detention."

In a communiqué on Pabon's death, the French Ligue des droits de l'homme (League of the Rights of Man) notes that Papon is one of the very few aged or infirm prisoners who have benefited from the Kouchner law. On the day that Papon walked out of La Santé prison and celebrated at a fine restaurant, there were 369 septuagenarians, 39 octogenarians and 2 nonagenarians in French prisons. The League condemned "the priority given to an accomplice of the Shoah in the liberation of sick prisoners over other prisoners who have not benefited from the same humanity as the purveyor of Auschwitz." The League contrasted Papon's "golden life" with that of other sick and aging prisoners, including the "calvary" of a 46-year-old political activist who died of lung cancer after her release on humanitarian grounds in 2006:

"How can we forget that one can always live through the terminal phase of cancer in prison, remaining in a cell while weighing only thirty kilograms [66 lbs], falling out of bed each night without getting help, and that there are still old people in prison who don't even know where they are?...

"There is too much inhumanity in the French penal system to get indignant over a measure of clemency granted to an old man, great criminal though he was. But it is intolerable that inequality before the law is so cynically assumed by public authorities."

A final note on Papon. In 1961, when he was chief of the Paris police, from 70 to 200 Algerian demonstrators were killed—typically beaten to death by police—and thrown into the Seine under his orders. The crime wasn't even acknowledged by the French government until 1998. Papon remained chief of police in Paris for a total of nine years (1958-67). He denied complicity in the events of 1961, not surprisingly, and was never prosecuted.

The Papon case demonstrates that it's not enough to have humane laws: they must be implemented fairly and without favoritism. It also shows that certain political and social elites are often exempt from the laws that apply to the rest of us.

NOTES

All materials in quotes are my translations from the French sources noted or linked.

GRAPHIC: Maurice Papon after his release from prison.

Geaghan: Sunday snippets

From the back pages of today's newspapers or online news sources...

Humvee RIP?

Has the Marine Corps in Iraq given up on the Humvee? Even the "up-armored" versions, which are often improvised by American troops from scrap metal, are highly vulnerable to IED's that are becoming ever more powerful. The flat undercarriage of the Humvee is especially vulnerable to bombs planted in the road. About two-thirds of the 700 Marines killed in Iraq were riding in Humeees. According to a news report by David Wood, the Corps now plans to replace all its Humvees, at a cost of $2.8 billion, with MRAP's (mine-resistant ambush protected vehicles). Crews are "four or five times more likely" to survive an IED attack on MRAP's compared to armored Humvees (though no comparison is available between the MRAP and unarmored Humvees). The basic problem, Wood writes, is that "insurgents can invent different and more lethan bombs faster than the Pentagon and American industry can provide protection." For beleagued Marines in Iraq, the MRAP will not offer much relief since "it will take years to complete the replacement" of the Humvee. For exactly how many years does this administration think the U.S. will be occupying Iraq? Bush has already informed us, of course, that any such decision will have to be made by his successor.

GRAPHIC: The Humvee in which Marine Sgt. Mark Chafin was injured in Iraq.

No regrets, no remorse

In France, Maurice Papon died at the age of 96, four years after his release from prison due to "failing health." Papon was convicted of crimes against humanity in 1998 but served only three years of a ten-year sentence. As director of "Jewish Affairs" in Bordeaux, Papon played a prominent role in the deportation of 1,690 Jews, including 223 children, from the area during World War II. He was the highest-ranking French official to be convicted of crimes arising from collaboration with the Nazi occupation (1940-44). His record of collaboration had no effect on his "brilliant" career in the French government, which assigned him to important positions during and after the war, including: police supervisor, director of Algerian affairs (!), Paris police chief (1958-67), and French budget minister (1978-81). The legal case against Papon was in limbo for sixteen years before he was finally brought to court. His two main defenses: he was following orders, and he didn't realize that the Nazis were exterminating deportees at Auschwitz. In 2001, he wrote that he had neither "regrets nor remorse for a crime I did not commit and for which I am in no way an accomplice." And, as his lawyer says, "he died a free man."

GRAPHIC by Serge Smulevic, artist and Auschwitz survivor. The French caption reads: "I was only following orders."

UPDATE: The Papon case

In today's news from France, Maurice Papon's demand to be buried with his Legion of Honor medal is causing predictable controversy. He was forbidden to wear it during this lifetime, but his lawyer is determined to fulfill his desire to wear it in the grave.

Of the 75,000 French Jews who were sent to the Nazi concentration camps, only 2,500 (3%) survived. One of the victims was Russian emigré and writer Irène Némirovsky, whose excellent novel Suite Française was recently published (2005) when it was uncovered by her daughter some sixty years after it was written. Three-quarters of French Jews survived the war, partly due to the aid given them by their fellow citizens. Such was the subject of Louis Malles' powerful film, Au Revoir, Les Enfants (1987). If you see Malles' film, be sure to balance it with a viewing of Marcel Ophuls' phenomenal documentary The Sorrow and the Pity (Le chagrin et la pitié, 1969, 4 hours and 11 minutes long), which presents the collaborationist environment in which Maurice Papon achieved such prominence. Regarding the fate of Papon's victims and millions of others, Claude Lanzmann's Shoah (1985, 9 1/2 hours) should be required viewing.

Maybe she overlooked the Twinkie defense

In a Virginia road-rage incident, a young woman tossed a cup of McDonald's soda into the car of someone who, she says, cut her off in heavy traffic. The "McMissile"—as it inevitably became known—contained mostly ice, but a "gooey" substance splattered onto the interior and occupants of the other car. The young perpetrator was accompanied by her three feisty children and a pregnant sister who was experiencing early contractions. A jury convicted the woman of "maliciously throwing a missile into an occupied vehicle," a felony under Virginia law, and several misdemeanors. She has already served one month of a mandatory minimum of two years in prison, though it's theoretically possible that a judge could still reduce her sentence. She is unemployed and her husband is on his third tour of duty in Iraq.

Sure, it was a stupid thing to do and her behavior should have some legal consequences. But two years in jail for a first offense? An anger management program, some community service and probation seems about right.

Revenge of the Blue Meanies

At the beginning of Cool Hand Luke (1967), the classic rebel film, a drunken Paul Newman is caught by police late one night as he staggers up the town's main street, systematically removing the tops of parking meters with a pipe cutter. Something similar is going on in Lewes, England, where 180 parking meters, costing $6,000 each, have been destroyed by someone knowledgeable in the use of plastic explosives. The unpopular meters are administered by NCP, a private company known locally as the "Blue Meanies" for the color of its uniforms. A task force, named after the American Carl Magee, inventor of the parking meter, has been formed to catch the perpetrators. So far no one has been injured by the late-night demolitions, which have cost the town over $1 million.

GRAPHIC: City of Peoria, Illinois