Originally Posted by
MadAmster
That's not the way Laws work and you know it. If there's a death penalty for murder then everybody facing murder charges could be executed if that was the verdict handed down.
One person wrongly executed is two too many, IMO. If there's a way to ensure that no innocent person ever gets executed, I'd be with you. However, it's simply not possible so Capital Punishment is a no no.
Not just for the sake of those wrongly executed. When we had the death penalty, the jury could recommend it as the punishment. Take the following scenario. A person gets found guilty of murder. The jury recommends the death penalty. The Judge agrees. The execution is carried out. The following year another person is arrested for several murders and admits to the one someone has been executed for. They give details of the murder that only the perpetrator could know and also gives up the location of the, so far, undiscovered body which is found exactly where they said it would be.
Someone has been executed for a crime they didn't commit. That's bad. A shame we can't make amends. Now, think of the anguish of family and friends of the person wrongly executed. Many lives, wrongly, blighted. Then there's the 12 people who who found the first suspect guilty and recommended having them killed. They would be devastated.
That's a lot of lives in turmoil for no other reason than your lust for "justice", for "blood".
Can never be released so why pay for them? Because we pretend to be a civilised society that finds wrongful execution intolerable and are prepared to pay to avoid that.