Reply #23: Very thoughtful post. [View All]

[PA Democrat]

I too oppose the death penalty, H20 Man. At one time, I supported it- before I met my husband and learned more than I ever wanted to know about our criminal justice system. My husband is a criminal defense lawyer and I've seen that our system has many flaws, and even if you believe in the death penalty, I've come to the conclusion that it could never be fairly applied.

In a perfect world
- witnesses would never lie
- jurors would never allow personal prejudices and feelings influence their decisions,
- police would never lie,
- prosecutors would be solely interested in justice and not their conviction rates or aspirations for higher office,
- judges would never let reelection worries influence their decisions for fear of appearing "weak" on crime,
- every accused person would have access to a good defense lawyer,
- verdicts & sentences would not be influenced by the defendant's finances, their skin color & appearance.


Sometimes jury results are appropriate, sometimes they are not. Sometimes appellate courts will take action to correct injustice, sometimes they do not.

Human are flawed beings and as a result verdicts and sentences will be unjust. I guess that it's my realization of how flawed we all are as human beings that I don't think we can ever have a justice system that is 100% fair, and when you are talking about a death sentence I don't think there is any room for error.