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Four years after a man was executed, someone else’s DNA found on murder weapon

cnn.com

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Re: Four years after a man was executed, someone else’s DNA found on murder weapon

#11

Post by momothereal »

cyberlurker wrote: post #4

Would it be possible to pass a law where judges and prosecutors are punished if someone is executed and it’s later found they were not guilty? Would it be a good or bad idea?

If the country in question has a good track record of punishing judges, prosecutors, and LEA, then it would be abolishing the death penalty _de facto_, as no-one would take that sort of risk over just imprisoning the person for life.

If the country does not have a good track record, it doesn't really change anything.

Re: Four years after a man was executed, someone else’s DNA found on murder weapon

#13

Post by fossislife »

Semaphor wrote: post #6
cyberlurker wrote: post #4

Would it be possible to pass a law where judges and prosecutors are punished if someone is executed and it’s later found they were not guilty? Would it be a good or bad idea?

I mean, that would essentially be a law that makes executions illegal. Which is a law that most civilized countries have.

It's a law that all civilized countries have. Allowing executions while dismissing evidence makes you uncivilized.

Re: Four years after a man was executed, someone else’s DNA found on murder weapon

#14

Post by pixl97 »

s1artibartfast wrote: post #9
briefcomment wrote: post #2

How do you execute someone without at least testing DNA on the weapon?

In this case, the rationale was that there is no DNA evidence that would outweigh the eye witness testimony.

Heh, I love how courts still accept eye witness testimony as reliable in the first place.

Re: Four years after a man was executed, someone else’s DNA found on murder weapon

#15

Post by ceejayoz »

mk89 wrote: post #5
briefcomment wrote: post #2

How do you execute someone without at least testing DNA on the weapon?

Like it was always done before DNA testing, I guess...

Not having evidence and not caring about available evidence are very different things.

Re: Four years after a man was executed, someone else’s DNA found on murder weapon

#16

Post by AcerbicZero »

How does the state justify this behavior in 2017? We execute so few people and it’s already so excessively expensive what’s the logic for refusing to test and retest everything? 20+ years in jail waiting to be executed seems pretty cruel, if not all that unusual IMO.

Tangential but I also strongly oppose lethal injection as a method of execution - if the state lacks the will to line up a proper firing squad, it has no business executing citizens in the first place.

Re: Four years after a man was executed, someone else’s DNA found on murder weapon

#17

Post by logicchains »

momothereal wrote: post #11
cyberlurker wrote: post #4

Would it be possible to pass a law where judges and prosecutors are punished if someone is executed and it’s later found they were not guilty? Would it be a good or bad idea?

If the country in question has a good track record of punishing judges, prosecutors, and LEA, then it would be abolishing the death penalty _de facto_, as no-one would take that sort of risk over just imprisoning the person for life. If the country does not have a good track record, it doesn't really change anything.

There are sometimes sitautions where someone's guilty beyond a shadow of a doubt; I don't imagine prosecutors would be particularly afraid to pursue the death penalty for someone like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anders_Behring_Breivik (who got 21 years in jail for the murder of 77 people).

Re: Four years after a man was executed, someone else’s DNA found on murder weapon

#18

Post by nabla9 »

cyberlurker wrote: post #4

Would it be possible to pass a law where judges and prosecutors are punished if someone is executed and it’s later found they were not guilty? Would it be a good or bad idea?

No. It's not possible. It would be horrible idea.

Law is a process, punishing people who do their duty for the errors in the process when they have not been involved in misconduct would not be justice.

Death penalty itself is wrong.

Re: Four years after a man was executed, someone else’s DNA found on murder weapon

#19

Post by ta988 »

LocalH wrote: post #12

The death penalty should be abolished, end of discussion. If even a single innocent person is murdered , then an obscene and heinous crime has been committed by the state.

I wonder how this argument would be applied to police murders of innocents. How do we deal with that?

Re: Four years after a man was executed, someone else’s DNA found on murder weapon

#20

Post by tyingq »

>The reasoning given by the judge was it wouldn't matter, that there were three people who saw him at or near that neighborhood on that day and time and honestly the DNA just wouldn't matter," Short said.

Not mentioned is that he was her neighbor. So, yeah, people saw him in the neighborhood, often.

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