[al_again]

Um... obvious????

Not only has the key eyewitness recanted, even the prosecutor thinks they got it wrong.

People need to realize that as long as there is capital punishment, there will be some innocent people put to death. To say otherwise is pure folly.

This case appears to be one of those cases. This is the main reason I am against capital punishment - you can't fix mistakes!

[peyton randolph]

This is the main reason I am against capital punishment - you can't fix mistakes!

Sure you can fix mistakes. That's why I support retroactive abortions...emanating penumbras of the Constitution that enable us to abort Hitlery and other feminazis with rusty coathangers. /semi-sarc

[rwfromkansas]

People are also wrongly imprisoned, sometimes for 30-40 years before being freed. Sometimes they die in prison.

Let's just not have prisons at all since some innocents get convicted. /sarcasm

[warrior9504]

If you accept the premise that mistakes will be made in the current system, couldn't you favor a new higher standard for the application of the death penalty? There is nothing saying that it has to be all or nothing.
Just as you can argue that a mistake can be made in the application of the death penalty I can argue that life in prison does not mean life in prison (parole, or escape) and they kill again.

[bdfromlv]

It is the law that needs to be corrected not the punishment. Blame the judges that will only follow the rules after the trial and the system that will not allow newly discovered (facts) to even be considered because it was late or not brought up in time. (cant make his highness the judge look bad) Also the use of retard lawyers that can only make a living off of poor people who the judges think get what they can pay for.

[A. Pole]

People need to realize that as long as there is capital punishment, there will be some innocent people put to death. To say otherwise is pure folly.

A large part of the public, if not the majority, believes that if you are accused, you are guilty. Even if you are wrongly accused you must be guilty of something else and you deserve the punishment. Innocent people are NEVER accused of committing a crime.

[Ninian Dryhope]

"even the prosecutor thinks they got it wrong."

Bull, there is nothing in this article that suggests that either prosecutor thinks that Cantu was innocent.

The one guy says he would not bring the death penalty, based on the second thoughts and the other guy says he believed that the witness was telling the truth when he said Cantu did it.

[Ninian Dryhope]

"People need to realize that as long as there is capital punishment, there will be some innocent people put to death. To say otherwise is pure folly.

This case appears to be one of those cases. This is the main reason I am against capital punishment - you can't fix mistakes!"

It may be true that "as long as there is capital punishment, there will be some innocent people put to death." Certainly death penalty cases are checked and rechecked and every effort is made to make sure that only those who guilty are executed, but trials are human process so there is always the chance that an innocent person could get the death penalty.

On the other hand, how many innocent people are not killed by criminals, since the death penalty deters them from committing murder? It is certainly more than zero. The death penalty is certainly a worse penalty than life imprisonment as can be seen by the number of people on death row who appeal in order to get their sentence changed to life imprisonment. A harsher penalty deters more crime. If it did not, then we could just give everyone a year in jail regardless of their crime.

The death penalty is also useful to threaten criminals with so that they confess and work with the police in order to avoid the death penalty.

So in real life, it is not a matter of some innocent people may be executed, therefore, get rid of the death penalty, it is a matter does the death penalty save more innocent lives than it costs? I think it does.

[Zon]

People need to realize that as long as there is capital punishment, there will be some innocent people put to death. To say otherwise is pure folly.

I concur. 

Because the mistake cannot be undone being put to death should be the convicted person's choice. And in the case of a confession on the witness stand wherein the defendant is fully aware that he may be sentenced to death. I don't think a confession to the police should hold up as irrefutable proof unless the entire confession is video and audio taped.

To any person that argues in favor of the state imposing the death penalty rather than the convicted person's choice I remind them: it could be you, your child, spouse or loved one that -- though they're innocent -- could be put to death. ...A terrible mistake that cannot be fixed. What miscarriage of justice are you willing to suffer? To the individual, there can be no greater miscarriage than to be wrongly put to death.

[verity]

[higgmeister]

Not only has the key eyewitness recanted, even the prosecutor thinks they got it wrong. People need to realize that as long as there is capital punishment, there will be some innocent people put to death. To say otherwise is pure folly. This case appears to be one of those cases. This is the main reason I am against capital punishment - you can't fix mistakes!

Are you against automobiles too? A tremendously larger number of innocent persons are killed in vehicle accidents than are executed unfairly. That might be a worthwhile undertaking, to crusade against automobile murders. We are all better off with this 26 year old (not teenage) offender TU in a dirt-nap.