Monday, November 23, 2009
Texas...Number 1 in The Death Penalty
Ahough I do agree in some aspect with the death penalty as some sort of consolation to the victims, I do believe the laws need some refining. I haven't been personally affected therefore haven't experienced the pain of the victims of violent capital crimes, but I can imagine there is some sort of satisfaction that comes from capital punishment. This is most likely the reasoning behind allowing victims and or victims' families to witness the exectution in Texas. The problem is the burden of proof beyond resonable doubt. If someone is going to lose their life, there had better be absolutely no doubt of that person's guilt. Unfortunately, there have been cases where there was some doubt, as well as cases where the suspect was proven innocent after recent forensic technology has advanced and proven otherwise. How many cases then, should have been overturned? More importantly, how many cases should be overturned currently before it is too late. There have been 8 innocent persons released from death row since it was reinstated in 1976. Currently Texas leads the nation in the number of executions since death penalty was reinstated Death Penalty Education and Resource Center I believe the innocence commission, which is a legal commission set up by the government to review criminal convictions in a new light, has their work cut out for them until we figure out another way of establishing resonable doubt or proving otherwise.
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Response to Death Pentalty.....
Texas is definitely known for its frequent use of the death penalty. I do agree with your position that the death penalty can and does help closure for some of victims families. However, I also believe that the use of the death penalty is to keep vicious repeat criminals from continuing to hurt innocent people. It also keeps our jails and tax payers from footing the bill for a criminals room and board for decades. The average cost of an inmate's expenditure in 2001 was $22,650 per year. That's over $62 a day to keep a person alive who has been a proven murderer and or rapist. In Texas you must be convicted of "Capital Murder " or a repeat rapist. I understand that in recent years we have seen a few convictions overturned from 20 years ago due to DNA evidence. This makes me believe that we might have made errors then that we are correcting with our modern scientific abilities. However we did not have a great deal of the technology we have now and are able to confirm with a greater deal of certainty, a persons guilt. With the persons average time on death row being about 10 years in Texas I feel that is ample time to clear up any questions of mistrial or questions regarding guilt. I really believe that we should trust our legal system, or how can we rely on any aspect of government? I'm not condoning blind agreeance, I am absolutely supportive of checks and balances. We must not let people in a position of power get too comfortable, but if a person is guilty of these horrendous acts, and who has no remorse or regrets, then there is no reason to fork over our hard earned dollars to give them cable and air conditioning.
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