Hear That Sound? It's Feces Hitting the Fan.

[kandrathe]

...
Likewise, we keep murderers alive because of the sentiment that we'd rather see 10 guilty men go free than 1 innocent man condemned ("cruel and unusual", "5th amenment", etc. etc.).
...
[right][snapback]100553[/snapback][/right]

I don't neccesarily agree with that sentiment.

It depends on the 10 guilty ones. There are some very nasty murderers who have slaughtered dozens of people. I think we should do our best to apply the death penalty for cases which are obviously solid, and not apply the death penalty for cases that are not heinous or not solid (circumstantial, with not direct evidence (e.g. DNA)). I'm not a big fan of letting a serial murderer loose because he was improperly mirandized for instance.

Then again, I often see investigative zeal pursuing (hounding) the same suspect without keeping an open mind to other evidence or alternate suspects.