ACLU: 139 Reasons to Abolish the Death Penalty

[marmar]

139 Reasons to Abolish the Death Penalty


Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia once wrote that there has not been "a single case — not one — in which it is clear that a person was executed for a crime he did not commit. If such an event had occurred in recent years, we would not have to hunt for it; the innocent's name would be shouted from the rooftops."

Soon it may become clear that Texas executed Cameron Todd Willingham for a crime he did not commit. But, in the meantime, the number of innocent people exonerated from death rows across the country continues to grow, and has now reached 139. Prosecutors acknowledged last week that Anthony Graves spent 12 years of his life on Texas' death row and six more in jail for a crime he never committed. As the prosecutors have publicly stated, Anthony "is an innocent man."

Anthony's life may not have been taken by the failed government program that is the death penalty. But 18 years of his life were completely destroyed. We need not wait for absolute proof that an innocent person has been executed when the number of innocent people sentenced to death shows that the system is broken and far too unreliable to justify the use of an irrevocable sanction like the death penalty. Anthony's case exemplifies some of the most serious problems with this broken system.

Texas prosecutors sought the death penalty against Anthony for the 1992 murders of six people, including a teenager and four children in Somerville, Texas. No physical evidence tied Anthony to the murders. He had no connection to the victims and no motive to kill them. His name surfaced in the investigation only when Robert Carter, the father of one of the victims and a suspect himself, implicated him during an intense police interrogation. Though Robert's statement quickly began to unravel in many ways, police never questioned his claim that Anthony had been involved. They ignored Anthony's friends and family, who confirmed Anthony's alibi: at the time of the crime, he was sleeping at his mother's apartment. ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.aclu.org/blog/capital-punishment/139-reasons-abolish-death-penalty

[Uncle Joe]

1. To take Scalia's point of view, you would have to believe that people and systems are perfect.

I believe that's literally impossible, it's not a question of an innocent person being executed, it's just a matter of when it happens/happened and how many.

Thanks for the thread, marmar.