approachingsignificance:

aatombomb:

“We cannot be completely certain that Troy Davis is innocent, but we can be certain that if states can execute people based solely on inherently unreliable evidence innocent people will be executed. The state of Georgia is about to be responsible for an outrageous violation of human rights.”

— Scott Lemieux

For me the question has never been “Is he innocent?”  I don’t know all the facts and was not in the courtroom at all.  But rather, should we be killing a possibly innocent person?  The answer is no.  In all convictions there exists a 1% error rate.  That means out of the 234 executions that the audience so feverishly applauded during the debate, 2-3 people were killed that are were innocent.  We are killing innocent people.  Not to mention states with the death penalty have more crime, which shows it is not an effective deterrent, and it is more expensive to execute a person than it is to keep them in jail for life.  Oh, and minorities are significantly more likely to get a death penalty conviction over a white person.  Such hypocrisy from less-government views.  You are allowing the government to murder it’s people.

I can’t believe we have to continue having this discussion in 2011. On the clear merits, the death penalty is ineffective, more expensive, inhumane, and morally indefensible in a free society. Yet we still have audiences cheering for the Governor of the most trigger-happy state in the union at presidential debates.