04-19-2015, 03:41 PM
Here is my 2 cents worth.....I watch ID channel a lot. I love true life crime and/or mysteries.....but it is bothersome that so many people have been released to in recent years due to technology, i.e., DNA, etc. and groups like Innocence Project which Hair referred to in her post. Thank God for these people. Even when the State is presented with DNA, which proves it was not the person on death row, they will refuse to release person. I see a lot of ego in some of these cases. I would never trust a jury to hand down a death sentence. These people walk into the courthouse with a lifetime of prejudices, biases, etc, but they sit there and deny all of that because, believe it or not, some people want to sit on juries. I could go on and on about a jury I sat on and the two old biddies who caused a hung jury because they said it was morally wrong to drink alcohol. This man was observed by police weaving and stopped him. He admitted to have a couple of drinks at a wedding, but State failed to prove he was impaired. They showed us video of alcohol tests made at the time of his arrest. He walked a straight line and never demonstrated "being impaired." All we had was the visual (the tape) to make the decision and we agreed that State didn't provide enough evidence. We had a hung jury because of two old biddies who believed drinking alcohol was a sin.....and thus, guilty; the rest of us voted not guilty...
I have always believed that a jury should not be able to make a death penalty decision. If we are going to have death penalty (for special people like child murderers, pedophiles who kill, etc), then we should have a panel of Judges who decide this based on evidence presented. Some of these cases make me ill because an innocent person has already been executed. I am always pleased when these wrongly accused people sue the State.....Mistakes happen, but all too often, it is the ego of the Prosecutor who stubbornly refuses to look at new evidence, lab errors, incompetence, eye witness testimonies,(we know now how unreliable eye witnesses can be). Just based on recent findings of death row inmates, being found innocent, maybe is good enough reason to take the death penalty off the table. Only exception would be those child killers, where there is irrefutable evidence of guilt.
I have always believed that a jury should not be able to make a death penalty decision. If we are going to have death penalty (for special people like child murderers, pedophiles who kill, etc), then we should have a panel of Judges who decide this based on evidence presented. Some of these cases make me ill because an innocent person has already been executed. I am always pleased when these wrongly accused people sue the State.....Mistakes happen, but all too often, it is the ego of the Prosecutor who stubbornly refuses to look at new evidence, lab errors, incompetence, eye witness testimonies,(we know now how unreliable eye witnesses can be). Just based on recent findings of death row inmates, being found innocent, maybe is good enough reason to take the death penalty off the table. Only exception would be those child killers, where there is irrefutable evidence of guilt.