Just Another Political Post.

[Minionman]

Death penalty as it is now is just fine, and the process by which we determine who should be executed is fine, the process by which we convict anyone of a capital crime could probably use some improvement in terms of allowing more evidence to be submitted so the case is clearer to jurors, or more clearly NOT a clear cut case. 

I don't lose sleep if a few dozen people in a year out of 300,000,000 are torched incorrectly.  Do the people in car crashes all deserved to die?  Not always, but ther are dead anyway.  Dead.  Dead.  Dead.  Life's tough, wear a helmet.

Given the appeal process, if the last appeals can't show error, we have met the good enough standard. 

We don't pay for, and can't afford, zero defects government, nor a zero defects justice system.  That does not mean we should not exterminate pests for fear of occasionally poisoning the cat.

Occhi
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Cars are given air bags, seat belts, people are taught to drive safer, etc. to prevent car crahes. Same thing about getting sick, that's another possible "life is tough" example, that's what doctors, water treatment, etc. are for. If someone could magically prevent car accidents, they probably would do it, unless it causesmore serious problems in the process. Accidental death penalties are really easy to prevent, just drop death penalty.

As to 'poisoning the cat", the point of the poison is not to show the pests that poison is there, or to make them writhe in pain, the point is to keep the pests away. If mousetraps work, than mousetraps get used for some of the poison. If leaving less crumbs around keeps pests away, that's also useful as well. In terms of death penalty, the most important question is whether it reduces crime. If not, that's twelve or so preventable pointless deaths a year, not a good system.