

Now 32-year-old Anders Behring Breivik stands accused of killing 76 individuals, many of them teenagers, in a vicious rampage that began with a bombing in Oslo on Friday. If convicted, he can expect to be a free man in his 50s.



Norway is an idyllic country. It will be interesting to see if Norwegians want to keep the 21-year prison-term cap after Breivik uses his trial as a megaphone to shout out the anti-multiculturalism, anti-Muslim and anti-Marxist message of his 1,500-page manifesto.

There is a lesson for Americans in this tale. Politicians in some states, including California, are pushing to end their state's death penalty. There are consequences.

Our Betters in Europe got rid of capital punishment decades ago. Next, Western European leaders went after life without parole. As Eurocrats focused on the redemption of offenders, they seemed to forget their obligation to protect the innocent and serve as a voice for silenced victims.

Hoover Institution legal fellow Abraham D. Sofaer sees the 21-year cap as "absurdly inadequate" for this type of heinous crime. "I'm sure it's well intentioned. Maybe it works in most cases," he added. "But then you get these cases, where one would think almost anyone would agree that 21 years is an insult."

This wouldn't be a first time a modern terrorist won short time for a long list of victims on European soil. In 2001, three Scottish judges found former Libya intelligence operative Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi guilty in the 1988 Pan Am Flight 103 bombing, which killed all 270 aboard. Scotland's life sentence made him eligible for parole in 27 years.

But after eight years, Scottish Justice Minister Kenny MacAskill granted Megrahi "compassionate" release on the grounds the Libyan had terminal cancer and was not expected to live more than three months. Almost two years later, Megrahi is alive and living large in Libya - having served mere weeks per victim.

When a country's justice system dispenses with the death penalty, then life sentences, it has no mechanism to redress evil. Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg actually used the word "evil" at a heartbreaking memorial service. Stoltenberg pledged that his country would respond to the evil with "more democracy, more openness, and more humanity, but never naivete." It's clear where he should start - eliminate the 21-year maximum sentence.

In his manifesto, Breivik wrote, "Once you decide to strike, it is better to kill too many than not enough, or you risk reducing the desired ideological impact of the strike." Oslo police say that when they confronted him, he laid down his weapons and surrendered without a fight.