 Quote:
Originally Posted by forester814  Exactly. "It is better ten guilty persons escape than one innocent suffer." -Sir William Blackstone
At least, if you later realize that a jailed person is innocent, you can release him/her. Pretty tough to do that if he/she has been executed.
I agree.
People will usually bring up the cost of life imprisonment here as a counter argument. The fact is, it actually costs more to execute someone, when you take into account all the legal work, appeals, court time, etc.
But even if it were cheaper, is that a justification?
We are killing this guy to save money?
Brings us right back to the "How much is human life worth?" discussion.
The other point, of course, is that prison is NOT for punishment.
It's for rehabilitation.
Pretty tough to try to rehabilitate a guy after a visit to the electric chair. | Yes, your points do have merit. But even if you were to release a wrongfully convicted person after say, ten years of imprisonment. Have you not already executed them in terms of destroying whatever life they might have been able to achieve for themselves and their families? I also live in Illinois, Forester. We've had more than our share of inmates wrongfully incarcerated for capital crimes. Many taken off of Death Row and released. What real life can these people have now? Realistically, nobody will hire them. They will always be looked upon with suspicion. In effect, their life has already been extinguished. Even worse, there is a limit to what these people can seek in damages. |