Judgment in Moussaoui case

Re “The Slow Rot at Supermax,” May 5

It is disturbing to see Americans violate noble principles just to take cruel revenge on a nastily imbalanced man, a minor player whose most serious crime is conspiracy in the 9/11 tragedy, then sentence him to life without parole in a horror like Supermax. Supermax shouldn’t exist. Where is the constitutional prohibition against “cruel and inhuman” punishment? The most important thing for any nation is to uphold what it stands for in all cases and not compromise them indulging passions of a much lower order.

GERI A. MELLGREN-KERWIN

Burbank

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I hope I am not the only American who is revolted by the reported conditions in the federal maximum-security prison. The sheer, unmitigated brutality of isolation is a chilling echo of the conditions we had long read about first in czarist and later communist prisons in Russia. The sadistic salivations of the judge in the Zacarias Moussaoui case are a new low in our degrading descent into the vagaries of mutually contaminating revenge. Her dragging in of a tag line from T. S. Eliot is simply obscene for anyone who knows that poet’s complex view of the human condition.

THOMAS MCGONIGLE

New York

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Re “With Judgment, Moussaoui Is Silenced at Last,” May 5

U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema has shown the best possible example of judicial temperament, restraint and wisdom. She handled the most difficult case with poise, equanimity, sound judgment and compassion and showed our system of justice at its best. And she spoke for us all in telling Moussaoui that “this trial and this verdict are clear evidence of the enduring strength of this nation and its core values, which do not focus on hatred, bigotry and irrationality.... You will never again get a chance to speak, and that is an appropriate and fair ending.” She has made me proud of our system, proud to be a lawyer and proud to know her.

LAWRENCE W. CHAMBLEE

Former Special Asst. U.S. Attorney

West Hollywood