(04-05-2019, 01:12 AM)americus 2.0 Wrote:

(04-02-2019, 10:27 AM)B2hibry Wrote: I think they should suffer. Bring back the ropes and the public square. This isn't 50 years ago when appeals could bring to light misidentification or mistakes in sentencing. If you are on death row today, there is a pretty good chance you deserve to die. But, because the prison system has gone the way of contracts, more warm bodies means more money. The system continues to line pockets.

For the most part yes but- since 1973, 144 people on death row have been exonerated. As a percentage of all death sentences, that's just 1.6 percent. But if the innocence rate is 4.1 percent, more than twice the rate of exoneration, the study suggests what most people assumed but dreaded: An untold number of innocent people have been executed. Further, the majority of those wrongfully sentenced to death are likely to languish in prison and never be freed. 

I'm not okay with innocent people being executed. Wrongful conviction rates are higher than we would think.

I get that which is why I phrase that the way I did. I'm sure there is a margin of error in there like most systems but where is the cutoff? How many appeals processes and years must an inmate sit before it is finally decided they are inrefutably guilty or exonerated? As death row elegible, you are already subjected to and afforded a better all around trial/conviction circumstance than a regular felon. With that said, death row conviction today is pretty accurate.

The last major study that I'm aware of is from 2014 which is where I believe your number come from. Even then, the study utilize an inaccurate method called "survival analysis" to estimate how many inmates would be exonerated if they had remained indefinitely on death row and not had sentences reduced to life in prison. I don't like the feeling of an innocent person being euthanized but that speaks more to judicial accuracy (false convictions) than cruelty and I don't believe we eliminate or underutilize capital punishment because of a "chance" (1.6%). I would like to see a study today going back to 2004 where DNA testing really hits its stride and judicial methodologies adjusted.

I'm all for the death penalty and surveys show most Americans are as well. The issue is that while most states, not all, have a death penalty that they fail to use or even try to challenge an inmates ruling. Look no further than California who has the largest death row population but hasn't actually executed anyone since 2006. Inmates sit and rot and tax payers fund it. Why do states continue to sentence folks to death if capital punishment won't be utilized? What is the solution? At this point and you are being used as a political pawn to line pockets whether at contract level or federal-state level. Too much red tape.

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