Shame on anyone still for such an archaic form of "justice".
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What It’s Like to Almost Get Executed
11–20 of 120 posts
Re: What It’s Like to Almost Get Executed
#12In the United States, innocence has never been grounds for an appeal, a stay, overturning, or clemency. Here in Florida, I could write an accurate algorithm for calculating the application of the Death Penalty. Skin darkness (literally, not race), IQ, wealth, sex are the relevant factors. The elements of the case are not. I'm not against the Death Penalty on general principle grounds; I'm against it because we clearl…
Actual innocence is a grounds for vacating a conviction.
In the USA, innocence isn't grounds for an appeal. Actual, post-conviction DNA tests aren't a basis. Errors at trial are. So good lawyers find one. Jury instructions, evidentiary errors, procedural, etc., which is why money buys justice.
Re: What It’s Like to Almost Get Executed
#13Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote some of his most significant works after his execution by firing squad was stayed at the last minute.
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/fyodor-dostoevsky...
There is a vivid description of his experience in the novel "The Idiot", you can read it here: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2638/old/20081222-2638.txt, search for: "As to life in a prison"
Or see it here with English subtitles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYN40R9Hjtg
Edit: s/began writing/wrote some of his most significant works/ (thank you dang)
Re: What It’s Like to Almost Get Executed
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
Actual innocence is a grounds for vacating a conviction.
In the USA, innocence isn't grounds for an appeal. Actual, post-conviction DNA tests aren't a basis. Errors at trial are. So good lawyers find one. Jury instructions, evidentiary errors, procedural, etc., which is why money buys justice.
What are you smoking? I'd ask for sources but this is an absurd idea. You don't even need innocence in the US. You need to show there is reasonable doubt that the individual is guilty. At least that's how it works during trial. I'm not going to claim this works flawlessly, nor that it justifies a death penalty, but let's be real here.
Re: What It’s Like to Almost Get Executed
#15Why are stays left to the last minute? Death pealty cases and their appeals last many years.
Because a stay of execution is literally a (temporary) last recourse. Up until that time, you are pursuing the years of appeals or otherwise trying to get the conviction overturned.
Re: What It’s Like to Almost Get Executed
#16Re: What It’s Like to Almost Get Executed
#17This would have been a far more interesting article if he had spoken more about his thoughts and feelings, rather than the mechanical processes.
Re: What It’s Like to Almost Get Executed
#18Dostoevsky (The Brothers Karamazov, Crime And Punishment) was sentenced to be executed by the Tsarist government in 1849. He was actually in front of the firing squad, waiting for his turn to die, when he learned that his sentence had been commuted to a measly 10 years hard labor in Siberia.
One could argue that this was the defining moment of his life, and most of his greatest works were motivated in some way by the intensity of that experience. So yeah, for lots more on this, read Dostoevsky.
Re: What It’s Like to Almost Get Executed
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
In the USA, innocence isn't grounds for an appeal. Actual, post-conviction DNA tests aren't a basis. Errors at trial are. So good lawyers find one. Jury instructions, evidentiary errors, procedural, etc., which is why money buys justice.
What are you smoking? I'd ask for sources but this is an absurd idea. You don't even need innocence in the US. You need to show there is reasonable doubt that the individual is guilty. At least that's how it works during trial. I'm not going to claim this works flawlessly, nor that it justifies a death penalty, but let's be real here.
You are completely misinformed. Reasonable doubt applies at trial, not on appeals. Also, the ad hominem adds nothing to your point.
Edit: look at Herrera v. Collins (SCOTUS): "Petitioner's claim of actual innocence based on newly discovered evidence is not ground for federal habeas relief. United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed."
Two questions were presented for the Supreme Court's review:
Do the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments permit a state to execute an individual who is innocent of the crime for which he or she was convicted and sentenced to death? What post-conviction procedures are necessary to protect against the execution of an innocent person?
Re: What It’s Like to Almost Get Executed
#20In the United States, innocence has never been grounds for an appeal, a stay, overturning, or clemency. Here in Florida, I could write an accurate algorithm for calculating the application of the Death Penalty. Skin darkness (literally, not race), IQ, wealth, sex are the relevant factors. The elements of the case are not. I'm not against the Death Penalty on general principle grounds; I'm against it because we clearl…
>>>I'm not against the Death Penalty on general principle grounds
You should be...
When you kill someone outside the conditions of self defense that is murder and is immoral. I do not care if the government doing it as some kind of "punishment" or a person doing it for another reason, murder is murder, "capital punishment" is murder.
If we want a peaceful, just and free society, it can not include capital punishment. A free and civilized society does not have Capital Punishment.
History will not judge us by how we treat the acceptable people, the people that follow the rules, the nice people... No history will judge our society by how it treats the worst of us, the evil people that given the opportunity would slice your throat open and laugh as you bleed out...
It is likely that in 100 years, this time will be viewed by people living then like we view the barbarism of Early American history. People will be asking "how could anyone support that kind of treatment of others". This of course is not just about capital punishment but the entire prison system.