[LexBaird]

At some point it's going to happen; it'll be proved that a man was executed on the basis of testimony or evidence that will be found to have been false. It may even happen that it will be proved that an innocent man was executed. And that's when there will be a serious push in America to abolish the death penalty.

Far more people have died as a result of letting guilty people go for lack of, or faulty evidence than innocents have been executed for lack of, or faulty evidence. But people never seem to count those costs to innocent life.

[Stone Mountain]

Far more people have died as a result of letting guilty people go for lack of, or faulty evidence than innocents have been executed for lack of, or faulty evidence. But people never seem to count those costs to innocent life

While this is true, it is irrelevent to the justice system. We could have all police shoot suspected perps on site and there's no doubt the crime rate and murder rate would go down. That doesn't make it a good idea. Similarly, because we have a system that requires guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, guilty people will go free sometimes. That doesn't make it right to execute innocent people just because guilty people who have gone free have killed others. People don't count those costs to innocent life because it is irrelevent to our justice system - there's nothing meaningful about comparing the number of guilty people who have committed crimes vis-a-vis innocent people that have been executed by our government. Our government is supposed to be better than those guilty people, so we would expect fewer people to have been executed by the government than killed by criminals.

[Doctor Stochastic]

Every time you convict someone who is innocent, you let a guilty person go to do more crime.

[RonF]

But people never seem to count those costs to innocent life.

It has from initiation been a principle of American justice that no legal system is perfect; that innocent people will be convicted and the guilty go free; and that in the interests of freedom it is better to bias the system towards the defendant, with the attendant risk that guilty people will go free, than to bias it towards the State and increase the risk that innocent people will be found guilty.

The cost is counted. It simply been decided that it's worth the cost.