From: Michael Lorrey (mike@lorrey.com)
Date: Thu Dec 17 1998 - 10:30:58 MST
Josh Glasstetter wrote:
> I just recently read a stat in newsweek stating something to the effect
> that of all the people who have ever been on death row, 1 out of every 8
> has been exonerated and removed from death row, some only hours before
> their proposed execution. from the standpoint of society at large, what
> good does executing people do, especially when running the risk of killing
> innocent people?
Actually, they have not been exonerated. They have been granted new trials or
granted clemency or pardoned. That is a far cry from exonerated. Usually the
only reason they were granted new trials was because of a technicality, not
that they didn't do it. If they are granted a new trial, but the evidence
against them is so old as to be useless, especially if key witnesses are dead,
it can be hard to reconvict someone who may really be guilty, so many times
the prosecutors decide to not go for a new trial, so the killers just get off.
Ususally this happens if the crook has served more than the average sentence
already for the crime by the time he or she is granted a new trial, so the
prosecutor figures that if they can't reconvict them its not a big deal since
he or she has served that amount of time anyways. Though this doesn't happen
often during election season.
Mike Lorrey
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Nov 01 2002 - 14:50:02 MST