QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Regardless of my personal opinion about the death penalty, I do not have confidence in the criminal justice system as it currently operates to be the final arbiter when it comes to who lives and who dies for their crime.
Faced with the reality that our system for imposing the death penalty can never be perfect, my conscience compels me to replace the death penalty with a solution that keeps society safe.”
New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson announcing his opposition to the death penalty.
Aside from the obscenity of a government being in the business of executing its citizens, Richardson’s reason for opposing the death penalty is as solid as one could find anywhere.
The law is imperfect and innocent people are convicted and killed by the state for crimes they did not commit.
A very good friend of mine from the Marines can tell you all about that — since he spent nine years in prison and two on death row in Maryland awaiting execution for a murder he did not commit, and is the very first person in U.S. history to have his death sentence overturned thanks to DNA evidence .
My buddy, former roommate and fellow Marine Kirk Bloodsworth — who would, were it not for DNA evidence, be dead today at the hands of the State of Maryland because of its mistake.
March 19th, 2009 at 8:33 pm
Scott, I realize that this question will get you burning. I also acknowledge that to be falsely convicted and spend years on Death Row is a heinous miscarriage of justice. But Scott, can you name one inmate, in modern times, who was actually executed for a crime he did not commit ?
March 20th, 2009 at 6:49 am
Dave that’s like asking someone to prove a negative. Let me ask you this Dave, knowing as we do that that miscarriages of justice occur almost every day are you proposing that the wrong person has NEVER been put to death?
The state just assumes that when they execute someone they’ve killed the right person and the books are closed and that’s the end of that. The state has ZERO interest in trying to find out if they killed the right guy AFTER they’ve killed him and courts almost never entertain defenses after those convicted have been put to death so to prove that a person was wrongfully put to death is incredibly hard because the state will not cooperate.
And as to your question about someone wrongfully executed, one of the best cases was in 1950 when England hanged Timothy Evans for killing his wife. Evans always maintained his innocence and he was convicted on the sole testimony of John Christie whom Evans’ lawyers said was the real killer.
Two years after Evans was hanged authorities found the bodies of 8 women in Christie’s basement.
The Evans case was one of the reasons England abolished the death penalty in 1965.
Additionally, the following are recent U.S. cases of men who were executed and for whom incredibly powerful evidence exists that they were innocent. However, because they’re dead the state will not reopen the cases and the defense lawyers, all of whom are generally acting pro bono in cases that can be extremely expensive to defend, have gone on to other clients.
Carlos DeLuna — executed 1989
Ruben Cantu — executed 1993
Larry Griffin — executed 1995
Joseph O’Dell — executed 1997
David Spence — executed 1997
Leo Jones — executed 1998
Gary Graham — executed 2000
Cameron Willingham — executed 2004
The point Dave, is that these guys are now dead and yet evidence points to the fact that they were innocent and a mistake was made by the state in killing them. The simple fact that a mistake COULD have been made and an innocent person MIGHT have been deprived of his or her life because of human and state fallibility should demonstrate that the death penalty is an instrument of justice that needs to be set aside — if for no other reason than the absolute finality without possible appeal for any INJUSTICE or error that may occur.
And since the justice system is made up of humans — all of whom are fallible — then capital punishment is, ergo, equally fallible.
If you get sent to prison for life for a crime you didn’t commit there are still avenues open to you to demonstrate that the state made a mistake, even decades later. But once that lethal drip begins or the gas starts to flow that’s the end of the appeals process and if a mistake has been made you’re not around to prove it and the state has no interest in acknowledging its error.
Dave, criminal law in America (and England) has been guided since 1760 by Blackstone’s Formulation, which says, “Better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer.”
Allowing the possibility, even if remote, that an innocent person could suffer execution for the state’s mistake flies in the face of everything that America’s criminal justice system should be based upon.
And none of this even begins to address the fact that there are two systems of justice in this country; one for the rich and one for the poor. I mean let’s be real here Dave — when was the last time you heard of a wealthy white guy sitting on death row awaiting execution? Hmmm?
March 20th, 2009 at 10:31 am
We are not infallible, and thats the bottom line we can and we do get it wrong. That one fact makes the death penalty morally reprehensible. It has more to do with our desire for revenge than a desire to see justice done. When I read about cases of people executed for a crime they did not commit my first thought is “that could so easily be me” and thats to great a risk for any of us.