Boffoblog: An Infallible Death Penalty?

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December 12, 2004

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An Infallible Death Penalty?

Let's have another taste of the NYT Magazine's Year in Ideas, this time on the question of "foolproof death penalties." The item concerns legislation recommended by a commission appointed by Mitt Romney to establish an "error-free" death penalty process for Massachusetts.

Would that it were. Actually, I wouldn't anyway, but that's a separate debate. Here I take issue with the commission's claim that a sufficiently careful and well-funded process can eliminate error. Indeed, the important qualifier is that the new process would be "as infallible as humanly possible" (emphasis mine). Can't say that instills a great deal of confidence. Where a decision is irrevocable -- oh, an execution? -- saying the process works as well as humanly possible is a good deal short of saying it won't make deadly mistakes. People just aren't that smart.

But I don't quite agree with the take of Frank Zimring, the noted criminologist and law prof quoted for reaction in the story:

The significance of the commission's work, Zimring says, is that it shows how capital punishment has become a luxury. The outgoing governor of Illinois commuted the death sentences of all death-row inmates; meanwhile, the number of people sentenced to death across the United States reached a 30-year low.

While that may be true in some states, clearly others haven't received the memo. Let's pause a moment to spare a thought for the people on death row in Texas, such as Jose Medellin whose case will be heard by the Supreme Court, and throughout the Fifth Circuit where appeals are treated with the respect of a deer tick (links to Talk Left). When even this Supreme Court is annoyed by the shoddy reviews of capital cases there, you know something is seriously wrong.

If only it were a luxury, a luxury we did without.

09:39 PM in Politics | Permalink

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