The OTHER link I provided you shows without question that not a single person executed since 1973 was proved innocent.
"Without question"? You're the one with the problem following along. (Incidentally, the "OTHER" link you showed is from a website of the link www.prodeathpenalty.com. That doesn't quite pass a test of objectivity, but, putting that aside and using an excerpt of your excerpt:)
Just a casual review, using the DPIC’s own case descriptions, reveals that of 39 cases reviewed (Sec. A, B, & C, pg. 12-21), that the DPIC offers no evidence of innocence in 29, or 78%, of those cases. Incredibly, the DPIC reviews "Recent Cases of Possible Mistaken Executions" (p 23-24), wherein they list the cases of Roger Keith Coleman, Leonel Herrera, and Jesse Jacobs - 3 cases which helped solidify the anti-death penalty movements penchant for lack of full disclosure and/or fraud. For the fourth case, therein, that of Coleman Wayne Gray, the DPIC makes no effort to claim innocence.
So apparently, the possibility that three, instead of thirty-nine, individuals that were executed may have been innocent is enough to swing the pendulum in favor of giving the state the benefit of the doubt?
Moreover:
The most significant study conducted to evaluate the evidence of the "innocent executed" is the Bedau-Radelet Study ("Miscarriages of Justice in Potentially Capital Cases," 40, 1 Stanford Law Review, 11/87). The study concluded that 23 innocent persons had been executed since 1900. However, the study's methodology was so flawed that at least 12 of those cases had no evidence of innocence and substantial evidence of guilt. Bedau & Radelet, both opponents, "consistently presented incomplete and misleading accounts of the evidence." (Markman, Stephen J. & Cassell, Paul G., "Protecting the Innocent: A Response to the Bedau-Radelet Study" 41, 1 Stanford Law Review, 11/88). The remaining 11 cases represent 0.14% of the 7,800 executions which have taken place since 1900. And, there is, in fact, no proof that those 11 executed were innocent.
Ah, thank goodness - only 11 were possibly executed erroneously.
And for the statement that there was "[n]o proof that those 11 executed were innocent:" I thought guilt had to be proven - not innocence.
Or is that wrong?
LPS5 |
