Wrongful Conviction/ Injustice Community Group
For people and families who have tasted or advocate against the horrors of injustice
If there is anything I despise worse than prosecutors and the sex offender registry, it is the death penalty in this country.
I am actually embarrassed and ashamed that the United States still clings to such a Medieval, barbaric process to mete out justice. Even if the process was moral----which it is not----our criminal justice system is so flawed that the finality of capital punishment makes it cruel. In the United States we can impose sentences of Life without Parole, so why use the death penalty?
Every aspect of the death penalty process is vile. The ceremonial "last meal" and the "last words" of the condemned inmate along with the voyeuristic attitude of the people who view his last moments on this earth---his last breath---makes the entire process disgusting. Who in their right mind wants to watch another man die?
The death penalty is just a form of retribution, an eye-for-an-eye concept that dates back to Biblical days. As Ghandi once said, "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind."
Sometimes I wonder if this once great country we call America will ever get its fill of death. From sending our brave men and women overseas to die for a cause nobody understands to the imposition of the death penalty, the stench of death seems to be part of our way of life.
Anyway here is an article discussing the death penalty, the human error involved, and lastly the prosecutorial misconduct present in many of these cases.
The link will send you to a law blog I read regularly. Within that article, you will find a link to the academic paper from which this article originated.
http://tinyurl.com/6cbkf
rewdiazepam
I am actually embarrassed and ashamed that the United States still clings to such a Medieval, barbaric process to mete out justice. Even if the process was moral----which it is not----our criminal justice system is so flawed that the finality of capital punishment makes it cruel. In the United States we can impose sentences of Life without Parole, so why use the death penalty?
Every aspect of the death penalty process is vile. The ceremonial "last meal" and the "last words" of the condemned inmate along with the voyeuristic attitude of the people who view his last moments on this earth---his last breath---makes the entire process disgusting. Who in their right mind wants to watch another man die?
The death penalty is just a form of retribution, an eye-for-an-eye concept that dates back to Biblical days. As Ghandi once said, "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind."
Sometimes I wonder if this once great country we call America will ever get its fill of death. From sending our brave men and women overseas to die for a cause nobody understands to the imposition of the death penalty, the stench of death seems to be part of our way of life.
Anyway here is an article discussing the death penalty, the human error involved, and lastly the prosecutorial misconduct present in many of these cases.
The link will send you to a law blog I read regularly. Within that article, you will find a link to the academic paper from which this article originated.
http://tinyurl.com/6cbkf
rewdiazepam
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Which explains the mysterious fevers and my extra fatigue. I'm so glad I pushed for answers.
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Due to my increased paranoia, anxiety, and a panic attack over the weekend, my psychiatrist has put me back in a full dose of Zyprexa until further notice. Every time I think I'm getting ahead something happens and it's back to square one. I knew he was gonna do this but I can't help feeling disappointed. It is what it is.
First off many who receive the death penalty are poor and have not received a good defence... I'll go back to the man that I've been supporting for about 14 years...He's been imprisoned for over 30 and initially faced the electric chair...It's a wrongful conviction that is so old it's been hard to bring in new evidence... Assoc in Defense of the Wrongly Convicted stated when they were doing their investigation that it was the worst case of prosecutorial misconduct that they've ever seen... The Louisiana Innocence Project couldn't believe that a death penalty case lasted ONE DAY...It sickens me
Very basically for me is how can one say that murder is a heinous crime that no one is allowed to do ever and the consequences for it are murder
I watch news shows such as 60 Minutes, 48 Hours etc and saw one about a man on death row... They brought him to the point of being in the death chamber several times .. Devastating his family over and over again .. The mental torture for him was horrific and then the reprieve comes until the next time
I think it's vicious and cruel to many people concerned... The families alone if you don't want to give a damn about the condemned all who love the person has to live this horror
And then there are the many, many people who have been wrongly convicted... This has been shown to have happened far too many times I think for anyone to ever believe that the death sentence is ever okay
I don't think anyone completely understands the ramifications of a wrongful conviction until it happens to them. I have seen enough injustices for a lifetime. It is never easy to observe people becoming victims of our criminal justice system.
I had a friend in prison who had a fall partner named Ron Williamson. He came within five days of being executed in Oklahoma in the 1990's.
He was exonerated by Barry Scheck's Innocence Project with DNA evidence along with another guy I did time with in Oklahoma. Ron later died of alcohol related illnesses.
His trial was such a sham and was the norm in Oklahoma during that period of time. They waited almost five years to file the charges and they were convicted with the help of a jailhouse snitch.
This same jailhouse snitch turned out to be the person that actually committed the crime for which Dennis and Ron was convicted.
http://tinyurl.com/q2a6h7s
Jan, no worries about criticizing my country. We are arrogant and we do damn well what we please. We invade countries we don't agree with, we invade countries without provocation, we kill and maim their innocent women and children and then we cover it up----or use the War on Terror as an excuse.
We became involved in the first Gulf War because Saadam invaded Kuwait, a sovereign country for no reason, which is exactly what we did in Iraq when Bush and the Neocons lied about there being WMDs in Iraq. Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11 and there were no WMDs. We were sold a bill of goods with the lies our elected leaders perpetrated.
We hate dictators, yet we harbor Cheney and Bush who are war criminals themselves and we refuse to prosecute them even though they admitted they ordered waterboarding. Hell, we executed some Japanese leaders after WWII for waterboarding, a form of torture.
We condone torture and imprison thousands of men without benefit of a trial at Gitmo.
We spy on our own citizens, send innocent people to prison, etc.
We have now become what the old USSR was in the Cold War. We hated and feared them and now we are doing the same thing they did.
I could go on and on but I won't as it is never a good idea to discuss politics here.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone.
rewdiazepam
People want to believe the justice system works... That's another big problem...Not enough people will stand up to say "We have had enough" because we also need a justice system
People don't want to believe that a lot of these things are intentional... I don't believe by any means that I think it's all about corruption however their are those in key places who are and they hold a lot of power... Harry Connick....the ex DS of Louisiana for example and I know when some police get together a 'gang mentality' can ensue
People too often want to turn a blind eye... If he/she's in prison there must be a good reason for it... Sometimes it might be a true mistake however then when it's shown to be wrong the 'system' should want to correct that wrong.. Instead they'll go to great lengths to take no responsibility for it....sigh... Sad state of affairs... We are the same here except that we don't have the death penalty....x
Then we don't even have the humanity and common courtesy to compensate them for their loss when they are exonerated.
http://tinyurl.com/opwfyw5
rewdiazepam
I know most of us can't fathom in any, way shape or form what you go through Ralph... It's just horrible....Huge hug...xo
As I understand it the death penalty in the US is also more expensive than just giving the person a life sentence. I've also heard that many people sentenced to death in the US end up dying of natural or other causes waiting for the final date of their execution, which makes the death penalty even more redundant and a bigger waste of money.