n Guilty men
Yet another non-story that some special interest group hopes will blow up into Something Big.
The central conceit is obvious: Show just one person executed wrongly and we can do away with that nasty old death penalty. Conservatism entire will collapse like the cheap suit it is, and all Republicans can finally be put in prison where they belong.
Only the American media could think that the death penalty could never be justified if there is any error ever. And here I thought they were pretty much anti-God, but come to find out they believe in divine infallibility--and that's just for humans.
Unfortunately for the dishonest and the stupid, this non-story was a non-story twice, since it turned out the right bastard fried after all. So no need to tote this one up as an argument in favor of Ol' Sparky; we can just ignore it and prepare for the Big Outrage if we ever do find an example of the Final Mistake.
One of the best law review article ideas ever raises this question and examines it closely. Just how close to perfection do adults conclude we need to be?
posted by ColumbusGuy @ 5:33 PM
2 Comments:
I'm not sure if anyone has ever been executed who was later proved innocent. Still, the argument against the eath penalty genearlly isn't based on getting the wrong man.
No, of course not. And one implication of your point is that, if a wrong man were executed, the debate ought not turn on that, unless something changed such that the argument against the death penalty were based on the possibility of error.
But you know very well that if such a mistake is confirmed, there will be hell to pay, not for any particular mistake made, a purely local and particular matter, but for the pro-death penalty side. It will be used dishonestly and disingenuously to discredit the policy.
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