Excerpt:
The trial of Norwegian mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik is, in the words of a perceptive Norwegian reporter-blogger, a "media circus." The killer is being allowed to spout his extremist views on a wide variety of subjects, and although he murdered 77 people with no apparent provocation, he is being permitted by the court to plead self-defense.
And amazingly, the trial began with the presiding judge and the prosecutors advancing to the defendant's box and shaking Breivik's hand–a mass murderer who admits his crimes and expresses no remorse.
Plainly, there is something wrong with such a "non-adversarial" criminal trial, and with the politeness-obsessed, conflict-averse Norwegian society that has created such a criminal justice system. Other aspects of the trial are equally non-adversarial. While in an American courtroom the defendant's lawyer would argue that his client is not guilty by reason of insanity–the only plausible defense for a murderer who freely admits his guilt and expresses pride in his crimes–Breivik's lawyer is allowing his client to argue that he is sane. In his remarks to the court and the press, the lawyer freely admits that he finds it distasteful to represent his client, and he doesn't make any serious effort to defend or even excuse him. "I feel I have lost my soul as a result of this case," he told reporters.