Thursday, September 03, 2009
When the wrongfully convicted sleep forever
Does the death penalty serve a victim justice when a judge declares the defendant guilty?
Occasionally, ex post facto evidence proves the dead innocent. The most recent case in the United States was Cameron Todd Willingham, who was executed in 2004 for killing his two daughters when their house burned down in 1991.
Since the death penalty was re-established in U.S. in 1973, 124 people on death row have been released after being found innocent. Maybe the plight of some of the 3,297 prisoners on death row in the U.S. (20,000 globally) are wrong too.
ReligiousTolerance.org created maps of the United States and the world showing the local and national governments that have abolished the death penalty:
http://www.religioustolerance.org/executh.htm
Human rights laws ban killing the innocent, but many governments won't admit that the justice system has its flaws.
Sources:
http://www.amnesty.org/
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39678
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/01/opinion/01herbert.html?_r=1
Occasionally, ex post facto evidence proves the dead innocent. The most recent case in the United States was Cameron Todd Willingham, who was executed in 2004 for killing his two daughters when their house burned down in 1991.
Since the death penalty was re-established in U.S. in 1973, 124 people on death row have been released after being found innocent. Maybe the plight of some of the 3,297 prisoners on death row in the U.S. (20,000 globally) are wrong too.
ReligiousTolerance.org created maps of the United States and the world showing the local and national governments that have abolished the death penalty:
http://www.religioustolerance.org/executh.htm
Human rights laws ban killing the innocent, but many governments won't admit that the justice system has its flaws.
Sources:
http://www.amnesty.org/
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39678
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/01/opinion/01herbert.html?_r=1
Subscribe to Comments [Atom]
