Death penalty gains unusual defenders

USA TODAY ^ | 1/06/03 | Richard Willing

[kattracks]

NEW YORK

[metesky]

Most people do not understand the legal difference between "not guilty" and "innocent".

[Alberta's Child]

Sure they do. Nobody with an IQ over 38 would ever want OJ Simpson living next door to them.

[Leisler]

Wat u bee sayen about da publik edjewmakation process?

[metesky]

LOL!

Seriously, I would argue that OJ is the exception that proves the rule.

[IronJack]

Sentencing a person to death -- and carrying out that sentence -- are the grimmest but noblest acts of a conscientious society. "Justice" isn't just pretty words. Sometimes it's harsh actions. And it doesn't always serve us. Sometimes we have to serve it.

[B4Ranch]

The "Justice System" no longer exists. Now we have a "legal system".

[banjo joe]

The "Justice System" no longer exists. Now we have a "legal system".

Well said. I now have another round in my bandolier.

[kidd]

"Death penalty gains unusual defenders"

Bill Clinton
Al Gore

[Man of the Right]

Good article. Stand up guy.

[Blue_Ridge_Mtn_Geek]

Eliminating the execution of murderers by the civil authorities does not eliminate the death penalty, it only privatizes it. Every one of the victims of homicide every year has had the death penalty inflicted on them.

What the opponents of legal imposition of the ultimate sanction are really creating is an environment which will increasingly result in victims' families hiring their own "angels of justice" to fill in the gap between what the state provides and what God requires. Kind of like the "Medicare Gap" insurance that covers the costs excluded from coverage by Medicare. This will skew the delivery of justice for the families of victims who can't afford such services, but hey, that's the way free markets work, even if, in this case, it is not a valid way to obtain justice.

If capital punishment opponents are really serious about improving the process, and reducing the number of wrongly convicted defendants, they could insist that prosecutors and witnesses against the defendant be held to the classical punishment for committing or soliciting perjury: they become liable for the same penalty their lies would have inflicted on the innocent defendant. There is no way that justice administered by fallible human beings will ever be applied "perfectly", but improvements are always possible, and even fairly wretched legal processes are generally preferable to "everyone doing what is right in their own eyes", as anyone who has lived through a period of anarchy will tend to agree.

[lsiagrubb30]

I am not very active in keep track of the death penalty however I knew Barbra (bobbie) Jo Brown . I will never forget the day she was murdered. I lived all of maybe 2 houses from her in Luling la. I was 11 years old . Her murder rocked the community! This man John Brogdon was a family friend of hers! So I truely believe if the crime fits the punishment so be it ! if you kill in such a gruesome way i believe u get what our legal system gives you and no punishment is to harsh.