Subj : Re: [twgsdotorg] To : All From : The Mad Hatter Date : Tue Jan 14 2003 09:31 am 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 justice in Canada or the United States (even with all the faults of both systems) than you do almost anywhere else. The Mad Hatter >From a message by Cherokee about Re: [twgsdotorg]: > I would like to know the source of your statistics, in particular the 23 Illinois men who were "innocent". These cases are almost NEVER cases of truly innocent men being convicted, sentenced to death, and then exonerated. Rather, they are usually cases in which some legal technicality allowed the men to go free. In every such case, the body of evidence was enough to convince a jury of reasonable people beyond a reasonable doubt, that the defendant was guilty. --- The Mad Hatter wrote: > > > > There are three good reasons that the Death Penalty is a dead issue > in Canada. The Killer M's, David Millgard, Donald Marshall, and Guy > Paul Morin. > > All three of these gentlemen were convicted of murder, all > exonerated. > > For those who say it couldn't happen in the USA, I suggest you look > at Illinois where in the last 10 years 23 inmates who were on death > row were later found innocent. > > The point of this being (for both Sanders and Cherokee who seem > unable to find it) is that government is best kept starved and > inoffensive, so that it cannot interfere with the lives of the > citizens. All governments should be kept this way - consider Saddam > Hussein if his government was defanged. He'd end up looking like the > Stay-Pufft Marshmellow Man. > > Government is not he solution to the problem - it is the problem. > > The only good politician is a dead one (they don't raise taxes). > > The best governme .