It's funny that most states are trying to abolish the death sentence.......

Here in Texas, we have a Express Lane to the front of the line. :wink:

 

I used to be for the death penalty. Now, I question that we should use it. The main reason is that there have been a number of people who were on death row who have since been found innocent. Some crimes deserve the death penalty. My concern is making absolutely certain that the right person is the one who gets the death penalty. The way things seem to be in our judicial system these days, district attorneys and courts seem to be more concerned about getting convictions for political reasons, at any cost, rather than finding out the truth. Remember the athletes at Duke? This would not have involved the death penalty, but could have been devastating for those accused. The district attorney withheld evidence and knew they were innocent, yet continued to prosecute them. Had some of those accused not had the resources to fight this, they would likely be sitting in prison today. Their accuser lied. Unless you have the financial resources, you may not get justice in this country.

 

Thank you GMAN for saying that. I know exactly what you are saying. My stepson biological donor I will not call him his father he never was one Broke my sons collar bone when he was 4 months old. His parents had cash and hired the best atty they could and got alot of the evidence thrown out not enough luckily and he was still convicted of FELONY child abuse and got 5 years SUPENDED sentance and also 4 years supervided probation and 90days in jail SUSPENDED.

Now my brother and my parents who had no money when his daughter threw a doll in front of her MOTHER and hit her brother in the face leaving a bruise was charged with child endangerment simply because of who he was. My family is a scapegoat in this town and ended up LOSING EVERYTHING KIDS HOUSE JOB AND FREEDOM. He ended up doing 90 days in jail simply because his Public Defender was WORTHLESS and only spent 20 minutes total on his case. Yet this PD gets 135K a year in WAGES and has 6 underlings and only had a caseload of 400 spreadout over a year. Do the math that is less than 60 cases per year per person and he only spent 20 minutes defending my brother.

 

Coming from NJ, our state is run by a bunch of idiots.

Our last governor outed himself on national tv/radio. He was corrupt as they come anyway. He made his boyfriend head of security for the state, or something to that effect. Basically he gave his boy a job he had no qualifications for.

Our sales tax is now 7%, it used to be 6%.

We have one of the highest property taxes in the nation. We pay almost $5900 for a .25 acre of land.

Forget trying to insure your car here.

People are leaving here in droves and have headed to PA. Now they are complaining about the influx of people.

So this move by the governor, to me, is just something on a long list. :roll: :roll:

 

I DO go along with the death penalty for many crimes, but I also see a major problem.

How many people has it been, in Texas, in the last two years that have had their conviction reversed on the basis of DNA evidence? Something like 14 around Dallas, Fort Worth alone? In IL, a guy served more than 20 years, and his conviction has been reversed because of DNA evidence. I have to think about how I would feel if they arrested me, sent me to trial, and convicted me. Sentence me to death, and I don't even know the person or people that were murdered. Suppose I was sitting home, alone, while the crimes were committed. No alibi. Obviously, with all the reversed convictions lately, it is possible to happen. There have been a few convictions, based on "JUNK SCIENCE" that have been reversed also, but I recently read that a couple of the inmates that were put to death were later found to be innocent as well.

The only problem I have with the death penalty is the fact that once it has been carried out, there IS NO REVERSAL ONCE IT HAS BEEN CARRIED OUT. How would you feel if you convicted a guy, killed him, and later found out that he was never even near the crime scene. Now, bring him back and free him.

 

well, here is my take. I'm ok with the death penalty but we need to be careful how we use it.

 

Or it's do to bad police work that a person is wrongly placed on death row. In VA, the Rt. 29 stalker was thought to be one guy when in reality it was another guy that police had said was totally innocent. Police refused to do a DNA test on the "innocent" man and instead tried to pin it on another guy who happened to not have any alibies. Police could never find any solid evidence but continued the case while the real stalker was homefree. The "innocent" man drove a vehicle that matched the description witness' had given as seeing and had been called on by his own co-workers in that he was always out of the office around the times women were disappearing. His co-workers also told police of how he talked of stalking women and how easy it was to get them to believe him. Police looked at his timecards for work and let him go because they showed him being at work. Fact was, the man was in charge of the timecards, so he could doctor them however he needed them to be. His ex-wife told police that he loved driving back roads in 2 certain counties(before the stalkings started happening) and that was where the bodies were being found, on backroads.

It's ok though, the "innocent" man got his due recently. He tried to kidnap a teenage girl in SC or FL and it backfired. She slipped away, called police and they cornered him. Somehow he was killed, whether on his own accord or by the police.

 

Yes, corporal punishment (CP) would be a reasonable and fair outcome, but ONLY when there are multiple witnesess and pristine untouched security video footage proving their guilt beyond the shadow of doubt.

I think it is INSANE for society to care for (meaning housing, feeding, providing medical services etc...) proven murderers. I mean, what kind of psychotic message does that send when a society not only allows that kind of deviant behavior, but in effect rewards it!? Why keep them alive? What can they possibly contribute to society?

To continue with another point: Yes to CP, but let's not torture them either. I respectfully ask that nations stop using inhumane methods and implement different and painless methods. For example, let them have a pleasant little drug overdose or bleed out drunk in a hot tub; we don't need to make them suffer...they're already being PUT TO DEATH! Thoughts?
Janeway

 

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/...o/5422726.html

I've got no reservations about putting to death people who are actually guilty of capital crimes, however, given the overwhelming evidence of wrongful convictions, I would rather incarcerate for life those who are guilty than risk killing a single innocent man or woman.

We have obviously killed a lot of innocent people.