Reply #16: The death penalty isn't wrong, [View All]

[NOMOREDRUGWAR]

but it is simply too dangerous to allow our government the power to kill people. They will inevitably kill innocents. I have no moral qualms about the death penalty, I just object to it in practice. If they somehow devised a way to ensure that we would never ever execute an innocent person, the stated support for the death penalty in this country would probably be near 85%. Many of us who oppose it do so for practical reasons, and don't like the idea of being lumped in with people who think that it is cruel and unusual punishment. It is only cruel and unusual punishment when it is done to an innocent person.

When it comes to individual cases where the accused has repeatedly proclaimed his guilt, you won't see me crying about the execution. Take Timothy McVeigh, for example. He murdered 168 innocent people, and in jailhouse interviews he explained why he did what he did. I was happy when they executed him.

Re: a new trial, only if it comes to light that the jury didn't have the evidence to sustain a guilty verdict, and in that case the courts would have to overturn the conviction.