I hope everyone had a happy 4th of July! I hope you saw some fireworks, heard some great songs and renditions of the Star Spangled Banner, and had some BBQ (maybe even a hotdog or two, though I hope not 66).
Now, sorry to bum everyone out, but I kind of must. We have a robust and working justice system. However, it is clearly far from perfect. Wrongful convictions are a major issue and problem, especially for the indigent and poor. The Innocence Project has been uncovering wrongful convictions for years and has helped exonerate 204 wrongfully convicted individuals (15 of which served time on death row). For additional info please check on this incisive and informative FRONTLINE documentary and website: The Case for Innocence.
The other day the wonderful Yllwdaisies posted about Troy Davis on her very cool blog Looking for Sunshine. I hope you take a gander at her post and read about Troy Davis. (And to add to the Amnesty Intl and Abolish the Death Penalty blog pieces, here's a great piece by TheHill.com which talks about Troy Davis and details how difficult it is to get media and congressional attention in troubling death penalty cases like this). Troy Davis' appeal to the US Supreme Court was recently denied. His execution date has been set for sometime between July 17 and July 24. I beg everyone to read about Troy Davis and for those of you that believe he deserves a new trial, that the evidence which convicted him is very suspect and troubling, please visit Amnesty International's take action page (use the fax option).
Thank you so very much for reading this. And mucho props and thanks to Yllwdaisies for posting about Troy Davis.
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17 comments:
Don't worry, I won't point out your spelling errors=)
I really think that DNA has made a major impact on convictions in the US. I also am not a fan of the death penalty.
Keep it going, v! Your blog is a great source of news of important issues!
In grade 13, our English Lit class (weird, I know) had a debate on the death penalty. I was chosen to head up the pro-death penalty side. We won, even though I am very against it. I can be very convincing when it comes down to me winning.
Canada abolished the death penalty in 1976 because of the fear of wrongful convictions. Which, I have to say, is a very good thing. There have been many cases in Canada's history of wrongful convictions. Steven Truscott, David Milgaard, and Guy Paul Morin are all very interesting cases of wrongful imprisonment.
First degree murder convictions instead carry manditory life sentances with the possibility of parole granted after 25 years.
Humm... I used the word "wrongful" three times in one paragraph. Probably time for me to pick up a thesaurus, eh?
I said it on her blog and I will sya it on yours. The thought of anyone,especially me, being wronfully sent to jail is horrifying.
I saw this movie where Tom Selleck went to jail for a crime he didn't commit, and he got raped by this guy and later had to stab him so we wouldn't be a bitch anymore. I can't handle this. I'm no Tom Selleck.
I did have a good fourth, thanks. I don't see your post as something that bummed me out because its an important issue that eveyone should know about - and do something about. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.
Good post V, it's long past time for our nation to join the rest of the civilized world and end capital punishment.
http://wbztv.com/newhampshire/local_story_184064930.html
http://wbztv.com/newhampshire/local_story_187103537.html
He needed the money.
I've always been against the death penalty, and I salute the work the Innocence Project does. But I do have one beef with the organization. It was started by two of OJ's defense lawyers, Barry Sheck and Peter Neufeld, who bastardized DNA evidence to get a guilty rich guy off for double murder that every knows he committed. That kind of dirties up their pet project for me. Hopefully, the organization is successful in spite of Neufeld and Sheck's affiliation.
NY Kat - Yeah, DNA testing has truly shown just how deficient and problematic our justice system is certain areas. I believe the Innocence Project has exonerated most (if not all) of its wrongful conviction clients through DNA testing.
Diane - Thanks, as always, for the kind words!
Mishy - There are quite a few things we (the US) can learn from our northern neighbors. And I don't think you need a thesaurus, you used the clearest word to describe your point.
Ryan - Well said. Wrongful conviction/imprisonment is clearly one of the greatest injustices a human being can experience.
Dan - Yeah, I totally agree. It is a very, very important issue and much needs to be done.
Sage - Yes, the blatant evidence of wrongful convictions (some on death row) is a reason everyone should be against capital punishment at this time (irregardless of one's political, religious, or social views). We cannot even have a real debate over capital punishment until our justice system can guarantee only the truly guilty will be subject to capital punishment. As numerous evidence shows, our justice system cannot guarantee that yet.
Getflix - Not sure what you're trying to say with your comment. But my best guess is that you're arguing for capital punishment by linking to news stories of a suspected and confessed murderer in New Hampshire. However this has very little to do with my post which is about wrongful convictions and, especially, the case of Troy Davis. I hope you are not trying to compare the NH suspect with Troy Davis, because that is a sad comparison. From what I've read, Troy Davis certainly deserves a new trial and the ability to enter new evidence which could exonerate him. I understand certain people feel strongly in favor of capital punishment. The problem however remains that until our justice system can guarantee that only the truly guilty will be subject to capital punishment (a guarantee numerous evidence shows it fails to accomplish), any use of capital punishment could result in the ultimate injustice of ending an innocent life. Illinois went into moratorium over just such reasoning, and a number of states are considering moratorium today.
LA - Yeah, Scheck and Neufeld being on the so-called "dream team" of defense attorneys in the OJ Simpson criminal trial is a bit troubling. However I do not know the specifics of their mindset for involvement. I don't know if they are legal mercenaries or the type of principled legal minds who offer their defense attorney services to anyone (albeit anyone who can afford them) and believe that for the adversarial (trial court) system to work they must robustly defend their client. However, it is safe to say that the Innocence Project is more than just Scheck and Neufeld. There are satellite programs at law schools across the nation. The organization is successful and doing highly important, pioneering work.
I posted the links hoping to illustrate the absolute disregard the accused man had towards killing the two young men. There is a clip of him smiling as he is led to court. He appears amused as he admits to the shootings.
You point V is very important, and greater care must be exercised in the use of capital punishment. But I feel it should remain an option, if a state chooses to use it. Just my opinion.
Right on.
Getflix - Thanks for sharing your opinion. It would have been nice and, frankly, less insulting if you had clearly expressed your opinion when you posted those links. I'm not sure if you notice this, but by simply posting those links you seem to imply that people who are against the death penalty on principle are not aware that heinous, evil murderers exist. In reality, they are aware but are still against the death penalty because they find it barbaric or do not want to be a part of state sanctioned execution (or both).
Of course, it is also understandable that many people feel murderers should be executed for committing such heinous, evil crimes.
This makes for a robust debate about capital punishment. Unfortunately, we cannot begin to reach this debate until evidence shows only the guilty are subject to capital punishment. As I stated in my earlier comment, the evidence to spring out of the wrongful conviction problem/issue, is that our criminal justice system cannot guarantee against wrongful convictions in capital crimes. In other words, until there is evidence that "greater care" has been taken, a nation wide moratorium is the moral choice.
V, I didn't post those links to insult you or anybody else. In fact your position makes moral sense. What I was hoping the links would show is how some individuals have come to manipulate the system.
I'll try to explain myself better next time
Sorry Getflix - I guess I jumped the gun on your initial comment. It should come as no surprise that I'm very passionate about social issues. However that passion can also be problematic when I jump to conclusions in ambiguous matters, like I did here. In my defense I would just like to say that the initial comments were a bit ambiguous without any explanation. (At first I thought you might be comparing the NH case with the Troy Davis case, which subsequently you have explained you clearly were not.) And I thought I should defend those who are against capital punishment on principle, as well as point out that the wrongful conviction problem/issue shows that a nationwide moratorium is in order until each state can put in place adequate safeguards to protect the innocent from being subject to capital punishment.
Once again I apologize for jumping to the wrong conclusions in the my previous comments. I hope you accept my apology.
Awww, no problem, V. We're cool. If I post links again, I'll put some text in there to clarify my opinion.
Everyone left such great comments, I really didn't have anything to add (shocking 1st, right?).
But another thing to think about is that lethal injections are not perfected. In some cases, they just paralyze the prisoner so that they can't really talk, or indicate that they are going through gut-wrenching pain.
And in homage to you, here's a Slate article.
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