Death Row Inmates, Murderers? Rapists? Child Molesters? Are They?

Well here's a divisive issue for all of my 12.160 friends to discuss and hopefully you will discuss it in the comments because I'm truly interested in hearing your opinions.

We now know that over 200 people, our fellow humans right here in the US have been exonerated completely and released from prison after spending years and years on death row. If it weren't for some truly devoted attorney's and college students these 200 men would have been murdered by the state.

One man, after spending 21 years on death row was released from prison just this year, paid almost 2 million dollars and is now guaranteed an additional 80,000 dollars a year for life, free medical care by the state for life and a few other perks. Was 21 years of his life spent in a solitary cell about 12 feet by 6 feet isolated from the world and human contact worth it? You'll have to ask him. I wouldn't think so. At least I wouldn't trade 21 years of my life eating nutritionally deficient food, living in a barred cell without human contact and one suit of clothes, striped, for that kind of money.

Anyway, a Texas judge (wait til you see this guy!) who is an admitted ex-alcoholic and an ex-cocaine addict whose tattooed to the neck is challenging the death penalty in the county responsible for sending more men to death row then any other in the country, in Texas, the death capital of the United States. He has declared the death penalty unconstitutional, and I agree.

Saying he could assume that innocent people have been executed, state District Judge Kevin Fine ruled in a pre-trial motion in a capital murder case on Thursday that the death penalty was unconstitutional and found himself on Friday facing a torrent of criticism from a string of high-profile Texans including Gov. Rick Perry.

So what do YOU say?

We convict people for rape, murder, child molestation and various other high crimes and then we execute them while at the same time we've very recently released the bulk of the 200 men found innocent after many years of incarceration while awaiting death on Death Row. Imagine how it must feel to be Innocent of all charges and know that you will be executed because the prosecution won their case and a jury convicted you and that same jury, or judge, sentenced you to death. I find it all unconscionable.

Then of course we also have terribly horrific people that kill, rape and murder us, the normal folks with family, children, grandchildren, parent and friends. So what do we do?

Here's a picture of District Court Judge Kevin Fine in his judges chambers:

Kinda looks like us, doesn't he?

So how do we handle the really bad guys if we can't really be sure that they're guilty in many cases. Not all cases, but many of them. Certainly in certain cases we know people are innocent but often it takes many, many years while they languish in jail to prove that innocence. And even then we don't always prove innocence for everyone. Surely we've executed innocent people.

Please, leave a comment, I'm interested in your opinion!

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Comment by Jeff on March 6, 2010 at 9:07pm: Agreed. I would have thought that there were people here that support the death penalty but perhaps I'm wrong?

Comment by Nikki on March 6, 2010 at 8:49pm: Not only is Texas the Death Capital of the US but it is also notorious for sending people to prison for years over petty crimes, especially drug related 'crimes.' I grew up in Texas so I have a right to say it, it's a great place but there are many self-righteous people there who feel the need to severely punish those who step out of line.

The American criminal-justice system is flawed and corrupt. We send more of our citizens to prison than any other country in the world. The prison-industrial complex has made it profitable to send people to prison, guilty or not.

Comment by Tara on March 6, 2010 at 11:16am: This is exactly why the death penalty doesn't work. Killing innocent people doesn't bode to well with me and it's a travesty to see someone spending a lifetime awaiting death, to find out he/she was innocent all along. What a waste of life, tax money and is there any amount of money given to the wrongly imprisoned to justify this egregious error of the system?

I know that in many of these Death Penalty cases there is a rush to judgement, flawed eye witness testimony and evidence and many times the prosecutor wants a conviction and will go to any lengths to get it because of political reasons rather than seeing real justice being served.

Even if there are many who are guilty of rape, murder, molestation ect. who probably deserve to be executed, if the whole system is flawed and they are putting innocent people into the frying pan, the whole system is not working on the side of the Constitution and the rights of the accused. If they execute even one innocent person it is wrong and we really need to start looking at if the Death Penalty should even be used anymore.

As you can see, I'm totally against the Death Penalty.

Comment by Jeff on March 6, 2010 at 8:33am: I agree 100% and thanks for commenting. It also costs far more to support a death penalty convict through years of appeals then to provide them life in prison and go through a similar appeal process. The death penalty appeal process is different and costly. And, as we all know, we kill innocent people under the death penalty although many people are in favor of it.

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