Posted on 06/30/2002 8:01:53 PM PDT by Pokey78
Edited on 09/03/2002 4:50:42 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
At a time when many authorities, from the U.S. Supreme Court to state governments, are rethinking aspects of capital punishment, Attorney General John D. Ashcroft is aggressively pursuing the federal death penalty and frequently overruling his own prosecutors in the process, according to records and public officials.
Since taking office early last year, Ashcroft has reversed the recommendations of federal prosecutors 12 times, ordering them to seek the death penalty in cases where they had recommended against doing so, according to statistics compiled by the federal capital defense bar. These include at least one case in which a tentative plea agreement had already been reached.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
What the article fails to mention is that these inmates who were released, we not released as a result of some technicality in their case, but were released as the result of DNA evidence that was not avaliable to them at the time they were tried and convicted.
This has been part of a project that was initiated by the Northwest University Law School a few years back.
Am I the only one who is bothered by the fact that we now have conclusive evidence that the government has wrongfully sentenced at least 100 people to their deaths?
Yes I believe the Northwest Project has not bothered, as of yet, to go back and look at cases where the defendant has already been executed. They are too buried in work concerning defendants that are still awaiting execution.
See my post #6
But that is an interesting thing about this project. I would also think that death penalty opponents would be using this as evidence to support their cause. However, the media has really paid very little attention to it. Therefore, I have to wonder why that is.
Could it be possible that because the polls show that there are more people who support the death penalty than oppose it, because they think it makes them more safe even though every study I have ever looked at indicates that implementing the death penalty has no effect on reducing the homicide rate, I think you might find that most politicians would shy away from supporting eliminating the death penalty. It is akin to political suicide for them, and that is true for both the democrat as well as the republican side.
"I'm concerned about mistakes being made too, but in our current system, we've got pretty good accuracy by the time these cases get through the total appeals process."
If memory serves me well, and I must admit it does not do so as well as it use to, these 100 cases taken on by the project have already exhausted all of there appeals. Aside from the cruel and unusual punishment and racial discrimination appeals that are usually filed at the last minute, which these days is akin to having no appeal in that they are usually summarily rejected by the court.
Well, when the American Psychiatric society declares an IQ of 145 is "retarded”, the death penalty will no longer be operative.
You're right. We don't use it enough. Since the death penalty was reinstated the annual homicide rate has been between roughly 18,000 and 23,000. If we only executed 10% of those apprehended we would probably be executing 1000 or more per year. I don't think we've executed that many in total since executions resumed back in the 70s.
America's Fifth Column ... watch PBS documentary JIHAD! In America
Download 8 Mb zip file here (60 minute video)
It is the only absolute deterrent to homicide because the deceased never commits one again.
'But,' you might say, 'once they're locked up....'
Look up the records of Clayton Fountain and Thomas Silverstein and then let us know how you feel. A Google search will turn them up.
America's Fifth Column ... watch PBS documentary JIHAD! In America
Download 8 Mb zip file here (60 minute video)
In any discussion on the death penalty it seems there is always one genius that has to interject that statement.
Nothing warped about the introduction of a little less punishment for those crimes of which one approves, eh, um, warped?
As in the case of the kind of kidnapping of children that meets with your approval?
That's the part I find somewhat humorous, although cynically so.
About every other post on this site will lament the inefficacies of government and how, according to some, they are the biggest bunch of clods they have ever seen. But let the discussion turn to the death penalty and they can't line up fast enough to approve giving the government the ultimate power of life and death over its citizenry.
That's kind of like saying I think we should hire Moe, Larry, and Curley for our security team, and outfit them with real high powered automatic weapons.
It doesnt really bother me. Look our justice system is constructed by men, thus it's imperfect. It's unreasonable to expect perfection. All we can do is try to protect as many innocent lives as possible. Consider how common it is for recently released felons on parole to go out and commit another horrible crime. You might have a few innocent people put to death and this is horrible, but without the death penalty you will have FAR FAR FAR more innocent people put to death in a far less humane way at the hands of savage murderers.
It is unreasonable to expect perfection from any human institution.
Yes it is unreasonable to expect perfection from human institutions. That is one of the dynamic things about our legal system; it has many provisions built in to correct itself when it makes mistakes. And it does make mistakes. However, when the supreme penalty is extracted, that ability is permanently removed.
"You might have a few innocent people put to death"
So if you only have a few that's acceptable, especially since it goes to meeting the needs of the many. I often wonder how people, who make that statement, would feel if they were the ones on the hot seat paying the price for the needs of the many.
This is a serious concern. Because truth has fallen in the street, these one-size-fits-all laws which are meted out by the LETTER and ignore the SPIRIT can be used to execute the falsely accused and be tools in the hands of tyrannical gov't. Sure crime should be stopped, but too many innocents sit in jail while other Barabbas' are released to prey on society. Such laws lead to a round-up of innocents.
http://www.truthinjustice.org/
By your logic we should do away with the entire justice system. Because it is a certainty that some people will be imprisoned unjustly. Is it really any better to be imprisoned for your entire life or to be put to death? I guess it depends on whether or not you believe in an afterlife. The point is you're making a simplistic argument that we should never tolerate a single person executed unjustly. I don't really see why its okay to imprison someone for life unjustly but not to execute them. By what moral principle is one acceptable and the other totally unacceptable? If we have a justice system, some innocents will always suffer unjustly, but if we have no system at all, far more innocents will suffer unjustly. This is the sad choice we are forced to make.
I choose the option that I believe will safeguard the most innocent lives. Can you explain your reasoning to me? Do you truly believe more innocents will be spared without the death penalty than with it? You mention sacrificing innocents, What about the child who is raped and murdered by a released convict that would have been put to death or is released early because of crowded prisons due to lack of death penalty. Will you explain why she has to die in agony so that you can sleep peacefully at night knowing that your justice system will never execute a criminal? This seems extremely selfish to me.
Innocents will die either way, they always do, but all the evidence shows that far more innocents die without the death penalty. For every person sentenced to death by mistake, I can find thousands of people who were murdered by already convicted felons. It's not even a close call.
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