Unveiled! Portrait of American Truth Teller Edward Snowden

[shawn703]

86. The ultimate penalty is death

Which can only be applied one time, regardless of how heinous the crime is. For those of us who feel the death penalty is never justified no matter the crime, someone can only serve a life sentence one time. Whether that person killed one person or killed a thousand people, that ultimate penalty can only be applied once. So no, releasing secret documents that may or may not end up costing American lives (and nobody can say definitely that it won't - who knows what we may have been able to find on those Chinese computers before they were told we were watching them) may not be as severe as lying an entire country into war and torturing people. But even though the war criminal committed a much worse crime in terms of severity, you still can't punish him any more than you could anyone else who gets a life sentence (or death sentence).

Snowden isn't any more justified in fleeing prosecution to avoid life in prison than anyone else who would flee prosecution to avoid life in prison - unless that person didn't commit the crime he is accused of but somehow there is overwhelming evidence that he did (by framing, for example). But I haven't seen Snowden claim he was framed and didn't pass information to the Chinese, so I don't see how he is justified.