Dying for [In]Justice

Trey Smith

The US criminal justice system is a broken machine that wrongfully convicts innocent people, sentencing thousands of people to prison or to death for the crimes of others, as a new study reveals. The University of Michigan law school and Northwestern University have compiled a new National Registry of Exonerations – a database of over 2,000 prisoners exonerated between 1989 and the present day, when DNA evidence has been widely used to clear the names of innocent people convicted of rape and murder. Of these, 885 have profiles developed for the registry's website, exonerationregistry.org.

The details are shocking. Death row inmates were exonerated nine times more frequently than others convicted of murder. One-fourth of those exonerated of murder had received a death sentence, while half of those who had been wrongfully convicted of rape or murder faced death or a life behind bars. Ten of the inmates went to their grave before their names were cleared.

The leading causes of wrongful convictions include perjury, flawed eyewitness identification and prosecutorial misconduct. For those who have placed unequivocal faith in the US criminal justice system and believe that all condemned prisoners are guilty of the crime of which they were convicted, the data must make for a rude awakening.
~ from How America's Death Penalty Murders Innocents by David A. Love ~

Each time then-President Bush or current-President Obama promoted or issued new legislation and rules that chip away at our constitutional freedoms, I hear people say, "If you're not guilty of anything, why worry about it?" Just as this article points out, many people mistakenly believe that only the guilty have anything to fear!

Since human systems make grievous errors -- purposeful and innocent -- the state has no business executing people. From my perspective, it is far better to lock up convicted killers, pedophiles and rapists for life as a safeguard to insure that one innocent individual is not put to death erroneously.

When we execute people who are later shown to be innocent of the crime they were convicted of, you can't call for a do-over. You can't say, "Oops! Our bad. Sorry 'bout that." Sure, you can issue a heartfelt apology and, possibly, financially compensate the grieving family of the deceased, but there is nothing you can do for the individual whose life you have taken. It's gone into the ether.

Put yourself in the place of a wrongly condemned person. You KNOW you are innocent of the crime you've been convicted of, but few people believe you. Do you think it will make you feel better -- as they march you off to the gallows -- to know that one day your name, nothing else, will be exonerated? Would that provide you with peace of mind as the lethal drugs flow into your veins or high voltage electricity courses through your body?

Me thinks not!