Executing innocent people is ok, don't you know?
Anyone who thinks death penalty is ok, should read this article, which will explain pretty comprehensively why the death penalty can have no place in any system that lays claim to the description "justice".
It also cites the most disturbing judicial pronouncement that I have ever read (and I've read a few), from the two chief ultra-conservatives on the US Supreme Court, Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas:
"This court has never held that the Constitution forbids the execution of a convicted defendant who has had a full and fair trial but is later able to convince a habeas court that he is 'actually' innocent."
In other words - it is ok to execute someone who has had a "fair" trial, even if the person is in fact innocent. Quite a statement, given that killing an innocent person is probably what the condemned was sentenced to die for in the first place.
By the way, I think that some people are monsters and some people deserve the death penalty, I just don't think that they should get it. Because murder by the State is still murder and no justice system should engage in the very sort of behaviour that it condemns.
that's my rant for the day.
It also cites the most disturbing judicial pronouncement that I have ever read (and I've read a few), from the two chief ultra-conservatives on the US Supreme Court, Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas:
"This court has never held that the Constitution forbids the execution of a convicted defendant who has had a full and fair trial but is later able to convince a habeas court that he is 'actually' innocent."
In other words - it is ok to execute someone who has had a "fair" trial, even if the person is in fact innocent. Quite a statement, given that killing an innocent person is probably what the condemned was sentenced to die for in the first place.
By the way, I think that some people are monsters and some people deserve the death penalty, I just don't think that they should get it. Because murder by the State is still murder and no justice system should engage in the very sort of behaviour that it condemns.
that's my rant for the day.