Quote:
Originally Posted by Phallus Fondue
i am pro death but also anti death penalty. i would be 100% for the death penalty if the margin of error was 0.00000% if we could get it so that no innocent person would ever end up convicted in such a case and sentanced to this punishment then i would be not only for it, i would want the process speed up. though i would be against all current forms of the way they do put them down. i would want them put out with anesthesia which yes is painless, then i would want every bit of tissue, organs, blood, skin, bone marrow, you name it collected and distributed to hospitals to be put to use saving lives.
i do know one of the main reasons it costs so damn much to house prisoners let alone death row inmates. that would be the stupid ass prison guard union. that damn union runs way to much and has way to much power. they have insured that they get mind numbing salaries, more sick days than any partially healthy person could ever dream of using, large numbers of paid holidays, pensions that are nearly obscene, and then special political powers. somehow they have managed to make damn sure nearly every judge appointed has been a district attorney and from law enforcement. they have backed and pushed for tons of laws that could only be seen as draconion so that the number of inmates goes up. they also choose the wardens and even turn down promotions since they would loose money. then to top it off they put considerable pressure on the governors and any state politician to bow to them or face loosing their jobs. grr sorry they piss me off.
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One of the main problems is that district attorneys are elected positions and they are pressured into getting convictions so if the have an eye witness that might be a little shaky, they will often fight hard to keep DNA evidence out of the case so they have a better chance of winning. They are also pressured to pursue cases that aren't worth fighting because they know if the don't it will have a hard time getting re-elected. This causes the system to clog up and gives those who are convicted a ton of resources to appeal. If there is DNA availiable it should be in every case. Let's speed things up and cut down on errors. And make DA's appointed so they aren't worrying about keeping their jobs when they prosecute a case.
A great example is a case that was in Atlanta not too long ago. The guy was being taken to court for a rape charge. He overpowered a guard, grabbed the guard's gun then shot and killed the guard and the judge. He then carjacked a woman and got away. The woman he kidnapped talked him into turning himself in. So the indictment alone was over 900 pages. There were 65 different crime scenes and over 200 potential witnesses. They brought in special public defense because all of the locals knew the people that were killed and removed themselves from the case. The defense attorney took one look at everything, talked to his client and then when to the district attorney. He told him that his client would plead guilty to whatever they wanted and he would accept life in jail as long as there was no death penalty. The DA told him he couldn't do that. If he didn't go after death he would never get elected again. The defense attorney told him he was required to vigorously defend his client if that is what they did. So in the end it took a couple of years and cost the city over 5 million dollars in legal fees to defend the guy. He got convicted and ended up being found insane so he got life in prison. What a waste of time, resources and money.