The number of actual innocents who are judged guilty is infinitesimal. If we can't trust that generally speaking, those found guilty of horrendous crimes are actually guilty, then all bets are off.
The last time I read about death sentences being commuted due to supposed possibility of innocence, it was really just picayne ACLU type procedural details.
IF they're actually guilty, kill'em quick.
"The number of actual innocents who are judged guilty is infinitesimal."
Am I to understand that you believe that since this number is "infinitesimal" that it isn't important? What if it were you, or your son or daughter or wife, that was wrongly convicted and sentenced to death? Would it still be unimportant?
"This is a report on a study of exonerations in the United States from 1989 through 2003. We discuss all exonerations that we have been able to locate that occurred in that fifteen-year period, and that resulted from investigations into the particular cases of the exonerated individuals.
Overall, we found 328 exonerations, 316 men and 12 women;2 145 of them were cleared by DNA evidence, 183 by other means.
With a handful of exceptions, they had been in prison for years. More than half had served terms of 10 years or more; 80% had been imprisoned for at least 5 years. As a group, they had spent more than 3400 years in prison for crimes for which they should never have been convicted – an average of more than ten years each.3"
excerpt from;
http://www.mindfully.org/Reform/2004/Prison-Exonerations-Gross19apr04.htm