Death sentence. Yes or no?

[Normchacho]

McDonaldsGuy said:

Normchacho said:

McDonaldsGuy said:

Normchacho said:

 

Oh yeah? There are currently 32 death penalty cases being reviewed due to flawed testimony surrounding forensic evidence between 1980 and 2000. 14 of those convicted have already been executed or died in prison.

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/4d1ac1226ca240319c3ac656ae1b246f/report-doj-fbi-acknowledge-flawed-testimony-unit

I also present you with the case of Cameron Todd Williams. Executed in 2004 for the murders of his three daughters after intentionally setting their house on fire. Except of course he didn't actually do that.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2015/03/cameron_todd_willingham_prosecutor_john_jackson_charges_corrupt_prosecution.html

"accurate enough"...Those two words represent what I feel is an insurmountable difference in this disscussion. My opinion, if that there is no such thing as "accurate enough" when it comes to the state putting people to death. especially when there is no real societal benefit to putting people to death in the first place.

As I said, I would have been totally against the death penalty (except for cases like serial/spree killers) about 15 years ago. You keep proving my point - DNA is helping free these people.

And I have read about Cameron Todd Williams and I feel it should go to court again to get the truth about, but as it stands no inncoent person has yet to be executed, or at least, with DNA now available.

I also feel that prosecutors should be held accountable for purposely falsifying evidence - they are not. There is a problem with the prosecution, not the death penalty itself. Your example isn't really any good anyhow (the FBI one, not the Cameron).

DNA isn't helping free these people. More than a third of them are already dead due to prosecutors overstating the importance of forensic evidence. DNA put them where they are now.

There is a huge diffeence between a recognized execution of an innocent person and the actual execution of an innocent person.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/28/death-penalty-study-4-percent-defendants-innocent

“If you look at the numbers in our study, at how many errors are made, then you cannot believe that we haven’t executed any innocent person – that would be wishful thinking.”

 

As I said before though, there is no acceptable margin of error for executions. Especially when there isn't a societal benefit to the executions in the first place.