On 1/10/06, Christian <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Some poor bastard in Virginia was executed. They are doing DNA testing > now to prove his innocence (sorry haven't followed up; don't know if was > completed or not). Sometimes the courts fail. > >
Here in Canada, we've had several cases over the past few decades where an accused was found guilty of murder, languished in jail for some time (20 years, in one case), and was later found to be not guilty. Luckily, we don't have the death penalty in this country. David Milgaard, Donald Marshall, Paul Moran and Steven Truscott are but four of them. Luckily for them, modern DNA forensic science, jailhouse confessions by the real murderer and persistent relatives and lawyers on the outside finally proved their innocence. It's tragic enough that the state took years or decades away from them, but at least they weren't executed. Until the justice system is 100% effective (which it never ever can be, due to human error) we must avoid permanent punishments, such as execution, castration, lobotomy, etc. It's only humane... cheers, frank -- "Sharpness is a bourgeois concept." -Henri Cartier-Bresson
