Sunday, September 25, 2011

Strange Bedfellows

It's a strange set of circumstances that ever puts me on the same side of an argument as Michael Moore (unless it's about cheeseburgers - I suspect both Moore and myself share a love of cheeseburgers.)

In this case though, from everything I've read so far, there was a huge miscarriage of justice in Georgia. The evidence under which Georgia executed Troy Davis was flimsy and flawed. Almost all of the witnesses against him later recanted their story. I don't know if he did the crime or not, but I certainly can say that the state did not prove their case to the point that they should have been allowed to go through with an execution.

In general, I am not opposed to the death penalty. The death penalty is what someone would get if I catch them trying to harm my family. However, our state and federal governments have proven themselves incapable of properly assaying the evidence in death penalty cases, prosecutors have been repeatedly found to have lied or distorted evidence, and jury instruction has mangled justice at every turn.

If you don't trust the state to protect you in the first place, why would you trust them to properly administer justice after the fact?

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