Executions

[BenBurch]

Who will cry for Larry?

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/09/21/ap/business/main20109250.shtml

Nobody.

Because there was no uncertainty about his guilt as there was in the GA case.

When witnesses recant American law does not know how to deal with it.

We have the trial court as the sole trier of fact, and any appeal has to reference some defect in the trial that the defense had the foresight to complain about at the time it occurred. Sometimes an appeals judge will step beyond his legal authority and order a new trial, but that is an exception.

And a witness recanting is not seen as a defect in the trial, as the defense had the ability to cross-examine at the time.

 

[RockNroll]

Same here.

Glad to hear that you have completely and utterly reversed the position you had previously been defending in this thread. There may be hope for you yet

 

[TubbaBlubba]

Same here.

Because there's no way you will EVER be wrongly accused and convicted, right?

 

[bookitty]

A good time to review this site.

http://www.innocenceproject.org/

 

[Pardalis]

No, because he was scum.

Michael

Are you for or against the death penalty?

You can't be both at the same time.

 

[TubbaBlubba]

Are you for or against the death penalty?

You can't be both at the same time.

It's entirely possible to be against the death penalty even if you don't care about the death of specific people.

 

[The Central Scrutinizer]

Glad to hear that you have completely and utterly reversed the position you had previously been defending in this thread. There may be hope for you yet

What position is that?

 

[The Central Scrutinizer]

Because there's no way you will EVER be wrongly accused and convicted, right?

Of killing a cop? Right.

I was once wrongly accused of parking illegally.

 

[TubbaBlubba]

Of killing a cop? Right.

I was once wrongly accused of parking illegally.

There is absolutely such a thing as being in the wrong place at the wrong time and being innocent.

Or are you claiming that no one (objectively, not legally) innocent is EVER sentenced to death?

 

[Verde]

It's entirely possible to be against the death penalty even if you don't care about the death of specific people.

Conversely, It's entirely possible to be for the death penalty even if you do care about the death of specific people.

There are many, many people that I would not wish to die, but there are some real scumbags that have no business sharing my supply of oxygen.

The Georgia case was decided on a preponderance of evidence. The Texas case was just a slam-dunk.

The appeals process is there for a reason. If you know of an innocent person that was not exonerated by the system please feel free to post it.

I fully support the Innocence Project, and have made some serious contributions towards it. I would not wish for someone to be jailed, let alone killed, for something they didn't do. They have done some good work. The mechanisms in place seem to be doing just fine.

V.

(A centrist leaning, pro-choice tree-hugging atheist, and a fiscally conservative gun-rights supporter who just happens to favor the death penalty.)

 

[DrDave]

I oppose the death penalty only because once consumated, it is impossible to reverse errors.

Of course you can reverse errors, it's called a posthumous pardon. For example Timothy Evans.

 

[TubbaBlubba]

Of course you can reverse errors, it's called a posthumous pardon. For example Timothy Evans.

I'm sure his family rejoiced.

 

[Drachasor]

There is absolutely such a thing as being in the wrong place at the wrong time and being innocent.

Or are you claiming that no one (objectively, not legally) innocent is EVER sentenced to death?

Or you could be framed.

Frankly, with the expenses needed already to put people to death in the U.S. it is cheaper to keep them for life. This is further emphasized by the fact that even with those precautions, innocent people have still been killed.

 

[Drachasor]

Would it be tasteless to ask posters how long they think it will be before the death penalty is abolished in the USA?

Rolfe.

I'd say 50-100 years.

 

[coalesce]

But cop killers are scum too, no?

Indeed they are. If they're willing to shoot an armed officer, then what do you think THEY think about unarmed civilians?

Michael

 

[coalesce]

Are you for or against the death penalty?

You can't be both at the same time.

I am for the death penalty. If after the appeals process has been exhausted, and all the stones are not left unturned, if the person is still found to be guilty, then that's it.

My point earlier was there was no outward show of sympathy for Lawrence Brewer's execution (at least none that CNN was showing) was because he earned it. His was not a cause célèbre and it had nothing to do with his ethnicity. He was scum. He helped to drag a human being who, in Brewer's eyes, was not as good as himself, to his death. And even if he was just a bystander as he claimed, he did NOTHING to stop James Byrd from being killed.

Michael

 

[coalesce]

I was once wrongly accused of parking illegally.

OFF WITH HIS HEAD!!!

Sorry, I though this was a Tea Party town hall meeting...

Michael

 

[Drachasor]

I am for the death penalty. If after the appeals process has been exhausted, and all the stones are not left unturned, if the person is still found to be guilty, then that's it.

Even if that's more expensive than imprisonment for life and still has the possibility of error?

 

[Travis]

It takes so long to execute anyone in California anymore we might as well have just abolished it.

In fact I think a lot of people are just waiting for Richard Alan Davis to be put down and then they will agitate for a ban again.

 

[Aoidoi]

It just seems that every time there is a discussion about whether something might or might not be a good thing for the USA to do, someone says, oh but we can't anyway because it's against the constitution. This seems like a very limiting thing.

Rolfe.

To some degree those limits are rather useful. And in this particular case the Constitution isn't preventing states from refraining from capital punishment. The laws regarding capital punishment aren't some arcane relic foisted on us by a moldy document. That the Constitution doesn't forbid it doesn't mean we're required to execute people.

And I'm rather fond of things like the first amendment, which also gets held up as one of those "oh, we can't anyway because it's against the constitution" things.