From: Emlyn (pentacle) (pentacle@enternet.com.au)
Date: Wed Apr 19 2000 - 23:44:01 MDT
> > Unless you take into account the possibility that he might be innocent
> > but wrongly convicted. Here in the UK, they've tightened up the appeals
> > and miscarriages-of-justice process a bit in the past few years, and
> > added DNA testing to the battery of forensic techniques available.
> > The result is that roughly 10-15% of historic "guilty" verdicts are
> > being overturned, in crimes as serious as murder.
>
> The problem with 'life in prison', is that nobody loses sleep when someone
is
> sentenced to it. There are people who are sentenced to life in prison,
because
> they are frustrated by the legal system and resort to blowing away a bad
guy.
> There are people sentenced to life on very little evidence. But nobody
cares.
>
> But let a hardened criminal, with a rap sheet a mile long, get
sententenced to
> death for killing and torturing a bunch of cute little kids, and all hell
breaks
> lose. A ton of lawyers and activists spring to the rescue.
>
> Argh!
Shouldn't that make life in prison a stronger deterrent than the death
penalty (given that it is more likely to happen)? Maybe the eye for an eye
folks should be steering away from the death penalty, to slightly less harsh
punishments which carry little or no political baggage.
Emlyn
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