Tell me that Calvin Tillie deserves to live

Yeah, but I'll bet you recidivism rates are lower among the executed than the non-executed.

 

Or, more accurately, try not to be ACCUSED of murder in those states, given the hundreds of people (that we know about) on Death Row who have later been proven innocent.

 

Why not just kill them all before they commit a crime? Think of the trouble we'd save.

Again, we did five pages on this yesterday. http://www.sportsjournalists.com/forum/threads/50671/

 

Someone should do a movie about that.

 

"Hundreds"? Please provide a list.

 

Hundreds is not true. But all it takes is one.

 

From the other thread.

Lists of exonerated death row prisoners.

http://www.innocenceproject.org/know/Browse-Profiles.php

http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?scid=6&did=110

http://www.icadp.org/page5.html

http://www.northwestern.edu/observer/issues/2003-01-23/deathpenalty.html

http://www.law.northwestern.edu/wrongfulconvictions/exonerations/

The error rate in Illinois before they took the death penalty off the books was about ten percent. Ten percent.

 

Huh, so hundreds is correct. Can't wait to hear pro-death penalty response.

 

On the last death penalty thread, someone provided a link to the Innocence Project. They've exonerated about 200 people so far. They do good work.

http://www.innocenceproject.org/know/Browse-Profiles.php

But I got bored at work this morning and started looking at the profiles of those that have been exonerated. Of the 200, only 15 were facing a death sentence (including two in Illinois who were part of the same case; so, basically, 14 cases). The rest were wrongly convicted of anything from robbery to rape and murder, and the sentences were anywhere from 2 years to life. One guy had been sentenced to 3,200 years, IIRC.
Illinois (five, with two people part of one case) and Oklahoma (three) were the only states to have more than one. Illinois had a serious problem in its justice system with capital cases, and rightfully commuted the sentences of those on death row. And in the Oklahoma cases, a crooked forensics expert played some part in two of the three cases. Seven other states (Maryland, Idaho, Arizona, Louisiana, Florida, Virginia and Pennsylvania) each had one person freed from death row.
That's not exactly "hundreds."

 

Every time I think I've got my head straight on capital punishment, along comes a poster child for the death penalty.

Because I no longer witness executions, the issue is not quite as pressing as it once was. It does, however, give one pause to think people are being killed in our name, by our acquiescence. That it does not happen before our eyes makes it much easier to hold an unshakeable faith in the justice system.

Depending on whose figures you choose to believe, I have witnessed the execution of one or two "innocents". They all looked the same to me — either drugged or fearful.

A homicide cop offered this after one memorable night in the execution witness room: "He's not innocent. He may not have killed this one, but you can bet he offed a bunch we never caught him for."

I guess you can believe it if it makes you feel better.

 

It's also not the only organization at work on this - nor is it the only one to which I provided a link. 126 names here:

http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?scid=6&did=110

 

Hundreds or 15, what is not in doubt is the following:

So long as we have the death penalty, we will all be complicit in the murder of innocent people.