Better That 100 Guilty Go Free
Than that one innocent man be put to death. That has been the mantra of the pro-life (oh, sorry, no, "pro-life" means "anti-abortion"), we guess we mean, then, the anti- death penalty movement.What has been missing is proof that an innocent man has actually been put to death. Until now and the arrival of a series in the Chicago Tribune of what now appears to have been the duly authorized and official murder of one Carlos de Luna in Texas in 1989.
It appears that De Luna as arrested, tried, convicted and executed for the murder of a convenience store clerk named Wanda Lopez. Only, he didn't do it.
So now what ? Here's a case in which it is all but legally proven that justice went haywire and an innocent man's life was taken by the state. The Governor of Illinois suspended executions several years ago on the strength of less evidence. Do we just take the view that those trigger-happy morons in Texas screwed up, but we don't have to worry ? The Innocence Project has data that would suggest otherwise.
Fortunately, we in California (death chamber pictured above) don't have to worry because we don't make misteaks.
Stay Naked
jd
posted by Unknown at 9:34 AM
1 Comments:
I read this story, and it is disturbing that this could happen, and it is also not the first time. That being said, if I saw someone murder another human being in cold blood, my first reaction is that that person needs to not go on living as well. This is our primitive gut level reacation. Recently however, I heard a woman from Rwanda whose entire family was murdered in the genocide there speak about forgiveness. She somehow was able to forgive, as painful as it must be and have been, the people who killed everyone she knew. After thinking about this.. I think that we are better served to remove murderers from society for good, but not to kill them. This way they get to reflect on what they did for the rest of their lives, and in the case where a person happens to have been wrongfully convicted, at least the option remains to free that person. It is a tough call. If I saw someone kill a person I knew and loved, and I had a gun, umm.. I think I would still have to shoot them, even though I know it wouldn't solve anything really. Call it instant karma payback. Thanks for the account on the story.
LC
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