Glenn Reynolds reflects upon the drawn-out trial, and death (by natural causes) of Slobodan Milosevic:

So should we just hang ’em? Perhaps. These trials are pretty much a foregone conclusion, and their character is more political than judicial anyway. When critics call them “show trials” they have a point. Do they do more good than harm? That’s not at all clear. I’m not sure what I think, but it certainly seems that trials that last until the defendant dies of old age aren’t the solution. Nuremberg didn’t take as long as the Milosevic trial.

While I am contra-death penalty, in the case of regular criminal proceedings, matters of war and “crimes against humanity” are another matter. A declaration of war is a virtual death warrant against the principals of your enemy anyway. I mean, if you are willing to drop bombs on a neighborhood, based upon questionable intelligence that your enemy’s leader might be there, why not just summarily execute the person, once in custody?