Zeev's Turnips Talk Politics (ZTTP)

[sortagreen]

The murder rate in this country has skyrocketed since the re-institution of the death penalty... probably would have been much worse if not for the deterrent though right?

Meanwhile evidence suggests that the death penalty is not used against pathological killers so much as it's just used against poor people who may or may not have had anything to do with the crime, but nonetheless can't afford an actual defense. When George Ryan commuted the sentences of the entire death row in Illinois it was because he was appalled that more people there had been definitively (as in by DNA evidence)exonerated than had been actually executed. How many then, had been executed on the flimsiest of evidence because no such magic bullet exculpatory evidence existed? How many are serving long terms for lack of any defense? Or for simple police and prosecutorial malfeasance combined with public apathy and/or blood lust?

Meanwhile, how much of the "common niceties" of the prison system do you think you could take? How about spending 13 years or so in hell before DNA evidence proves that your date with the executioner next month will have to be cancelled. It happens... frequently.

You guys believe that Christ is still alive? He must be welling up with pride over you.