So, we agree on several things. Here's my suggestions: let's fix what's wrong with the system. That means if it can be proven that a police officer or prosecutor tampered with evidence, he or she gets punished every time. No exceptions. No leniency. If a prosecutor withholds possibly exculpatory evidence and it can be proven he or she did it deliberately, we yank the law license permanently. (I have zero tolerance for people in the law enforcement system who don't have the highest possible ethics.) We change the death penalty laws so that only a person convicted of multiple murders or the murder of an officer of the law or the jury is convinced beyond any doubt whatsoever can receive a death sentence.cb1000rider wrote:They absolutely matter. And I completely admit, you get to do away with a lot of evil at some cost to a very few people. That's the choice that we're making here... I'm not saying that everyone has to make it the same way. Not everyone is aware that we've exonerated death penalty cases or that the system is capable of making a mistake like putting someone factually innocent to death. I want people to be aware. I don't judge their opinion.
One more thing. Sentences should be completed. At a minimum, a life sentence must mean life. Not twenty years and time off for good behavior. The purpose of imprisonment is to punish for crimes committed, not to rehabilitate people. If we can rehabilitate them, fine, but shortening sentences simply communicates that the punishment will never really fit the crime. The purpose of the death penalty is to remove from the earth people who are an obvious threat to society and cannot be allowed to live without putting other people at risk.
We need to execute the Kenneth McDuffs of the world. We don't need to execute people when the facts are not rock solid or when their crime wasn't outside the bounds of "normal" human behavior. (What I mean by that is, for example, a man who explodes and shoots his wife should spend life in prison, but a man who plotted his wife's death and then carried it out should get the death penalty. The former indicates a lack of self control. The latter indicates malice aforethought.
