Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s trial has been delayed for so long largely because the United States chose to prosecute him through the specially created Guantánamo military commission system rather than an established federal court, while also having subjected him to coercive CIA interrogation, creating years of litigation over whether his statements and evidence derived from them can legally be used. The case has been slowed by disputes over classified evidence, repeated changes of judges and lawyers, the logistical difficulties of conducting a capital trial at Guantánamo, political battles over whether to try him in civilian court, and more recently the collapse of plea agreements that could have ended the case. In effect, many of the delays are the result of the extraordinary detention, interrogation and prosecution system the U.S. created for the defendants. Its what happens when you make up law on the hoof. If he had been held under more conventional circumstances, its likely this would have been over a decade ago. If a conventional arrest and detention process had been followed, he would have been convicted by 2007. The American system though encourages repetitive appeals leading to decades on death row. The superior British approach, when it had capital punishment, was a single appeal (there was later a sort of second appeal), which generally meant that sentence was carried out within 3 months of sentence being passed. Like all on death row, should he be found guilty, he should be executed in public, at a random street site, with members of the public drawn at random, by mail and by door to door enforcement to attend and witness, much like jury duty. The execution method should be by extra long drop hanging, with the act being performed by a randomly selected member of the public, under the supervision of a suitably qualified officer. Extra long drop increases the likelihood of decapitation (partial decapitation happened in the case of Saddam Hussein, after the Iraqi prison authorities deliberately set up a longer than normal drop), saving the need for a doctor to pronounce dead. Should the condemned survive, he should be hauled up and hanged again. Hoods should be prohibited. A country that supports the death penalty should also participate in it, but volunteering to join in should be prohibited, in the interests of public decency and to discourage ghouls.
