Texas executes an innocent man

[SeattleUte]

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/09/07/090907fa_fact_grann

The most interesting thing about this article is how Justice Scalia and other intelligent people who support the death penalty agree that if a single innocent man, wrongfully convicted, is executed, the death penalty loses all moral authority or justification. They contend this has never happened nor could it in our system. They are naive, deluded, or venal.

Here a man was tried for three alleged murders over just two days. A marriage counselor with a B.A. was allowed to testify that he was a sociopath. A psychotic fellow prisoner testified that this defendant, whom he had never met, and who steadfastly maintainted his innocence, until the moment before they stuck the lethal injection in him, and rejected a life in prisonment deal on the eve of trial, confessed to him through a food slot. The accuser was set free for giving this testimony. One of the prosecution's shrinks literally has kept score of all the men he helped send to the death penalty, and has had his license revoked for thusly whoring himself.

The arson investigators had high school diplomas and mail order certificates, and their conclusions were "wives' tales" and "junk science." They claimed to operate on "intuition" and denied applicability of science. After a real, world class scientist issued a report debunking the arson investigators' conclusions beyond any doubt the Texas clemency board and the governor didn't read it, by their own admission.

Texas-style justice. Sickening. Texas, Iran, China, Pakistan, these places are in a class by themselves.

[RobinFinderson]

Absolutely tragic. I hope this travesty of justice is enough to turn public opinion against this barbaric for of 'justice.'

[Indy Coug]

[SeattleUte]

Did it make you feel better about all those dead babies to have the government kill him?

[JohnnyLingo]

Did it make you feel better about all those dead babies to have the government kill him?

Kinda, yeah.

Absolutely tragic. I hope this travesty of justice is enough to turn public opinion against this barbaric for of 'justice.'

All of these attacks on the death penalty, including this one that SU brings up, attempt to malign capital punishment by pointing to poor choices made by individuals who employ it. It would be like judging ACORN based on the behavior of its members.

[SeattleUte]

Kinda, yeah.

Perhaps the deepest message of great, instructive mythology like the Oresteia and the Gospels is that advent of civilization requires moving beyond this ethos of bloodletting, visceral satisfaction through revenge. Like a crack habit, there is no satisfaction to be had. Blood always demands more blood. It curses us all.

Our great contemporary fable is that our justice system is infallible, indestructable, and incorruptable.

[SeattleUte]

All of these attacks on the death penalty, including this one that SU brings up, attempt to malign capital punishment by pointing to poor choices made by individuals who employ it. It would be like judging ACORN based on the behavior of its members.

Scary. Lingo: "What's a dead innocent every once in a while as long as we can incinerate all those undesirables."

I guarantee that if this guy hadn't have been dirt poor and uneducated he'd be a free man now, not a victim of 12 years in a human made hell and a state execution.

[Indy Coug]

Did it make you feel better about all those dead babies to have the government kill him?

Whatever pisses you off makes me happy.

[JohnnyLingo]

I'm trying this new thing where I don't respond at all when I've been completely mischaracterized.

Crap.

[creekster]

While there are crimes that deserve the death penalty (I once worked for a court handling the appeal of a child rapist/murderer who had confessed; his confession is the most sickening thing I have ever read; I would have pulled the lever myself for that guy), becasue its applicaiton can never be perfect and equal I cannot support it.

[SeattleUte]

I'm trying this new thing where I don't respond at all when I've been completely mischaracterized.

Crap.

All of these attacks on the death penalty, including this one that SU brings up, attempt to malign capital punishment by pointing to poor choices made by individuals who employ it. It would be like judging ACORN based on the behavior of its members.

I'm sorry, but you seem not to understand your own words very well. You don't seem to consider it relevant that the death penalty, which is of irreversible consequence, is meted out unjunstly in many instances, including disproportionately on minorities and the poor. This is the main problem with it. We don't even need to get to the abstract points. My characterization of your post was exactly right.

[Pheidippides]

While there are crimes that deserve the death penalty (I once worked for a court handling the appeal of a child rapist/murderer who had confessed; his confession is the most sickening thing I have ever read; I would have pulled the lever myself for that guy), becasue its applicaiton can never be perfect and equal I cannot support it.

This partly explains my position, but I also have the added bit about moral equivalence and redemption (even though it may only occur behind bars).

[RobinFinderson]

I'm trying this new thing where I don't respond at all when I've been completely mischaracterized.

Crap.

You made a stupid point. ACORN, as an institution can and might be corrupt, but it is unfair to make that point based on the scant evidence you offered in a different thread. It doesn't make sense to describe Capital Punishment as corrupt. We can argue both logically and rhetorically over whether Capital Punishment reflects our social values, but ultimately Capital Punishment either works or it doesn't. One can support the idea of Capital Punishment while being against it in practice, because of imperfections in the way the system administers it. Even if a person supports the idea of capital punishment, in light of this travesty, one's support of its practice ultimately reflects on how that person values human life. An innocent man died. It could have been a friend or your child. He was the friend and the child of someone, and now he is dead.

[JohnnyLingo]

I'm just saying there is no inherent flaw in capital punishment. Mistakes in its application are made by irrational human beings, so any venom directed at such a miscarriage of justice should be directed at those who pulled the trigger, not the gun.

Hmmm... I just found a common thread between capital punishment and gun control I'd never thought of before.

[creekster]

I'm just saying there is no inherent flaw in capital punishment. Mistakes in its application are made by irrational human beings, so any venom directed at such a miscarriage of justice should be directed at those who pulled the trigger, not the gun.

Hmmm... I just found a common thread between capital punishment and gun control I'd never thought of before.

I am sure the innocent victims of capital punishment would love to direct their venom at the responsible irrational human but they can't becaseu they are dead. That is exactly the problem. You can't fix that error. 'Ooops' doesn't quite cut it.

We have to decide what our policy is as a society. We know some crimes deserve death, but some may not so clearly and we also know that sometimes the wrong person is convicted. This can NEVER be avoided, as you concede. Thus, if our policy adopts death, we will kill some number of people who are innocent or whose circumstances don't truly justify death. OTOH, if we adopt no death penalty as a policy, we know with perfect certainty that no innocent person will ever be executed in our name by irrational humans.