Quote:
Originally Posted by SmokeyTheBear
i wonder out of curiosity how many of those people were proven innocent or merely not proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt..
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the argument presented by the poster does break down when you look at the conditions under which most people had their sentences commuted. usually its a case where there is reasonable evidence presented that the guy sentenced to murdering a young girl because he may have been the one holding her down while his friend slit her throat etc.
not defending the death penalty, but
"proven innocent" doesnt mean "wasn't there and had nothing to do with it" in the vast majority of cases.
given the insane appeals process for death row inmates, its not like there isn't adequate time to make an argument or raise questions.
obviously the system isn't one without faults and personally, i am against the death penalty for my own reasons... but the assumption of these types of discussion is "he's innocent" and thats almost never the case.