No cutting or pasting involved, Billy.Originally posted by Billy_Dean@10 October 2003 - 03:12
[j2k4] RELEASED FROM DEATH ROW--the appeals system works; no "innocents" were executed.
[ACLU] According to a 1987 study some 350 of the people convicted in the USA of a capital crime between 1900 and 1985 were innocent. 23 of these people were actually executed
[Billy=cool] A bit of selective copy\paste there j2?
[ACLU] Where a death sentence is sought determines whether a defendant is sentenced to death, more than the circumstances of the crime.
[j2k4] This is not clear; is this a question of individual circumstance and locale, or continental geography? A clarification is required.
[Info] See here... the answer to your query.
[Billy=cool] I find it hard to believe that you can claim that NO innocent person has been executed.
I think I'm making a judgement call here, and it is this:
There are "studies" and there are "studies"; likewise with statistics.
First of all, my point is/was that none of these cases has been proven, that is to say, to any extent greater than the ACLU saying, "We are not satisfied that justice was done in this case". One of the ACLU's favorite tactics is to call something into question, then make the opposition spend their money proving the ACLU wrong.
It may be that you don't live in the U.S. and have the ACLU under your critical microscope, as I do, but I would abjure you from quoting any of their rhetoric or "studies, as they have a very definite liberal/activist agenda.
For instance, they are currently bringing their legal weight and expertise to bear on the question of whether grown men should be able to have "consensual" sex with little boys-the ACLU is shilling for NAMBLA (National Man/Boy Love Association) on the pro side of the argument.
So, if you want to forward the notion that such an organization has no similarly wacky slant on their view of the death-penalty, feel free.
As to my sources (ref: my post), they are the work product of those who are "in the business", so to speak, and consist pretty much of pure numbers, assembled for no reason other than to discover the "who, what, why, when and where" of crime.
The question at the top of the thread, I think, had to do with the death-penalty.
I assumed the concern was the potential for executing innocent people.
The point that people are more or less likely to be convicted according to where they commit their crime is null, I think, as none of this precludes their access to the appeals system which has proven the saving grace; if they aren't guilty, the appeals system has proven reliable in revealing this.
As to your last, my supposition that no "innocent" has been executed is as legitimate as the ACLU's, without the liability of serving an "agenda".
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