Subj : Re: [twgsdotorg]
To   : All
From : The Mad Hatter
Date : Tue Jan 14 2003 11:13 am

It is - check if for yourself though. You should never believe anything anyone 
says unless you have checked it yourself.

No, the Death Penalty is a big part of the problem. Execution is by it's very 
nature final. If you later find out you've made an error, it's impossible to 
fix.

As to the number of people who have been condemned to death and exonerated, do 
some research - you'll be surprised at how often the system was wrong.

The Mad Hatter


>From a message by Cherokee about Re: [twgsdotorg]:
> Assuming that everything you say is correct, and for the sake of
argument I will grant that, then the problem is still not the death
penalty.  The problem is a justice system that does not provide
adequate defense for poor defendants, and corrupt police willing to
torture suspects to obtain false confessions. I would be all for any
type of reform that increased the accuracy of our justice system.

Death penalty opponents always use the scenario of the "innocent death
row inmate" to try to argue against the penalty. I'm sur this happens
occasionally, but I believe it is far less frequent than death penalty
opponents claim. 

But what about the truly guilty?  Do you think those who are truly
guilty of capital crimes should be put to death?  If you answer "no",
then you should explain why the death penalty in general is wrong,
rather than relying on the old "an innocent person could die" argument.




--- The Mad Hatter <twgsdotorg@twgs.org> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> Check CNN, MSNBC, Nytimes.com, etc., all of the major news sites
> covered it.
> 
> And yes, these people were innocent. Through DNA testing (which was
> not available when many of them were convicted), research, etc. the
> convictions were overturned, and in several cases the real
> perpetrator was convicted.
> 
> 8 of the convictions were obtained by confessions that were extracted
> under torture. The officer who obtained those convictions has been
> removed from the police department, however he has not as yet been
> jailed (I was unable to even find reference to him being charged).
> 
> The Criminal Justice systems of both Canada and the United States
> have errored with great regularity. A conviction in a court of either
> country does not mean that you are guilty, it often means that you
> could not afford a good lawyer. Harsh but true.
> 
> What is really scarey about this is that you stand a better chance of
> getting j

.