You’re never going to have absolute certainty.
Videos can be doctored. Confessions can be coerced. Witnesses can be bribed.
You can explain to a father whose daughter was raped until she dies as to why the inmate, whose conviction is almost certain why he gets to live and others do not.
You are also the sort of person, where because real justice is almost unattainable, that many people cheer inhumane prison conditions or prison rape because they no longer have faith in a justice system that will give them justice.
In all trials, every means should be used to best determine guilt or non-guilt, but once an accused is found guilty, thre should be little hesitation in carrying out the sentence.
Very, very rarely but not never. I believe the DP should be reserved for only those very rare cases. Again, death is not reversible. There are real-world cases where executed people have been found not-guilty when new evidence or the true perpetrator is discovered.
In those cases the person is dead and the state takes no responsibility. The state is far from perfect and final but death is. How do you not see this is a great failure in justice? These failures make me question the justice system far more than not executing enough people.
Think about it. If they are willing to wrongly kill someone without even an apology, do you think they care at all about wrongly locking you up?
“Videos can be doctored. Confessions can be coerced. Witnesses can be bribed.”
This is just a short list of the reasons for false convictions. There should be a set minimum number of independent witnesses and unquestionable independent pieces of forensic evidence to even consider death.
“You can explain to a father whose daughter was raped until she dies as to why the inmate,whose conviction is almost certain why he gets to live and others do not.”
Sure. Two wrongs do not make a right. Continuing a wrong does not make a right. “Almost certain” is not certain enough for death.
If my daughter was raped/killed, it would cause me additional life-long pain if I had any part in executing an innocent man. If there was ANY doubt, I would use all my power to not execute. I have a strong sense of honor, even if someone out there terribly wronged me. I would have to be 100.0000000% sure to recommend the execution of someone.
Personally, I believe life in prison to be a far worse punishment than death. Being forced to stay alive in a cage your entire life is far worse than falling asleep with a needle in your arm or getting shot. Hypothetically, if I was truly guilty of something so evil, I would demand death. If I was innocent, I would want to stay alive and hope to beat my conviction.
For a reversible and compensate-able punishment such as jail time, the burden should be a “reasonable doubt”. For death there should be NO DOUBT. Even one innocent person executed is forever a blight on the state and justice system.