May 15, 2012

Texas executed the wrong man in 1989--WTF?

Wrong man was executed in Texas, probe says - Yahoo! News

6 comments:

leighton said...

And yet to this day many people believe that eyewitness testimony is not at all a weak, problematic form of evidence. Sad.

steves said...

Most jurors give eyewitness testimony great weight. It is very unfortunate, considering all the evidence of how unreliable it is.

Bob said...

It amazes me that those who say that Government is ineffective and poorly run have the confidence in Government to put the right guy to death.

leighton said...

Bob, if what they actually think is that government is ineffective and poorly run when it comes to guaranteeing white/straight/male hegemony, that is consistent, if appalling.

steves said...

Bob, that is strange, but I think that most fans of the death penalty are ok with most "government" activities. They are just selective as to what they think is necessary. I would guess that they are fine with police, fire, and the military. They probably oppose entitlements.

The only people I know that are die-hard, small government are some libertarians and anarchists.

Personally, I am more puzzled by people that are critical of activist judges and our legal system full of loopholes, but are comfortable with giving it the power to kill.

Streak said...

That is interesting, Steve. My sense from most Republicans, actually, is that they don't trust government. That applies to most things, and they say that government is always inefficient and private enterprise is always more efficient. The only things they don't complain about are the military and death penalty.

No doubt the eyewitness testimony is part of this, but I think the bigger thing is that most supporters simply don't think that innocent people will be harmed, and that, theoretically, the death penalty is a deterrent. And because of some of the class and race issues here, white, middle class privilege means never fearing that this will be used on them.