September 26, 2011

• Death To The Death Penalty

  Recently there has been a lot of controversy in the news about the death penalty. First, there was a question in the Republican debate a couple of weeks ago in which the crowd applauded after Texas Gov. Rick Perry proudly responded to a question about how Texas had executed 237 people in the past 10 years. And then last week, Georgia death row inmate Troy Davis was executed amid many questions as to if he was truly guilty.

  I have to be honest, I have always had mixed feelings about the death penalty, but have always leaned slightly against it. A few years ago I moved from being slightly against it to actually being against it. See, I just felt that killing somebody as punishment for another person’s murder was probably wrong; after all, two wrongs do not make a right. To me, it is kind of unmoral to execute somebody in spite of that person’s unmoral act of murder.

  Then a few months ago, I had a conversation with somebody who brought up a very good point: what if the person on death row is actually innocent. Of course, this was something that I had thought about previously and did influence my belief, but not as much as now. I have to say that now, the potential of one’s innocence is the biggest reason why I’m against the death penalty. I know there are people out there who believe that everybody who is on death row is guilty, but that is just a crazy thought. After all, was everybody ever acquitted of murder truly innocent? Need examples? See Simpson, O.J. or Anthony, Casey; most people agree that both of them got away with murder.

  I heard on Piers Morgan tonight that 17 people who were on death row had their convictions overturned based on DNA evidence and also another 112 people later had their convictions overturned based on other non DNA evidence. Furthermore, I’d like to know the stats of people who have been given a life sentence for murder who later had their convictions overturned. Of course, the difference with a life sentence and an execution is one big thing: if there is a mistake with a life sentence you get out of jail; if a mistake was realized after somebody had been executed the chances of bringing that person back to life is pretty damn slim.

  Let’s call the execution of an innocent person exactly what it is: murder. Look, we all know the judicial system is far from perfect. So if a certain percentage of people who are guilty are actually found innocent, then certainly at least the same percentage of innocent people are found guilty. And you know damn well that not all of the 237 people Texas put to death were guilty; hell, simple math and common sense proves that some of those people were innocent, after all we all know the judicial system isn’t perfect. So let’s even be on the conservative side and say that only 5% of them were actually innocent. Now I’m no expert when it comes to math, but that is probably somewhere around 10-12 people. Can we really live with knowing that in addition to the victims of these crimes, we have made even more victims which is even more tragic?

  Now I can not speak intelligently about the case of Troy Davis; I don’t know nearly enough about it to have an opinion one way or another. But, I do know that there were significant questions about his guilt and when you have a situation like that, there is no way that we should even be considering going through with the execution.

  I realize that many people who read this are probably on the same page as me. But, I also really want to hear from people who are for the death penalty. My question is, how can you justify support of the death penalty if the person being executed is actually innocent? What do you say to that person or that person’s family later on if the executed person is proven to be innocent?

  • 10:16 pm
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