Capital punishment is continuing to lose credibility as a reasonable response to crime. While we all have some level of understanding of the desire to see a murderer suffer a fate in kind, in practice the idea of making sure murderer's get their just desserts, we are coming to see as increasingly difficult -- if not impossible.
Most glaring is the challenge of maintaining a fair system that does not punish the innocent along with the guilty. A little over a month ago the nation witnessed an execution in Georgia that left everyone shaking their heads. How could the state of Georgia execute a man when there was so much doubt about his guilt? What purpose was served? What principle of law was upheld, if fundamentally it didn't matter whether we were certain he committed the crime?
Now another case in Texas leaves people shaking their heads again. Hank Skinner has an execution date set for November 9, 2011. But he has cases pending in federal and state courts to compel the State of Texas to conduct DNA tests on all of the untested evidence in his case. Wait a minute; shouldn't we be certain Skinner committed the crime before he's executed? Wait a minute, you mean there's DNA evidence and it hasn't been tested?
The head wagging begins when you wonder what justice is served by Texas refusing Skinner's request for DNA testing for more than a decade, forcing him to go to court to challenge in the first place.
What justice is served now by Texas's apparent attempt at an end run on the courts by setting an execution before the courts might have an opportunity to rule?
The dangerous thing about the death penalty is that the stakes are so high, that it is too easy to be more focused on winning than on justice. It's so horrible and taxing that it is easier to focus on getting it over with than doing all the painstaking, even hard things necessary to make sure we've got it right. And in this case it's easy. But this observer sees more than a little human pride at work as well.
For goodness sakes, test the DNA -- it's a win-win for justice.
There has been much DNA testing in this case, as well as much additonal evidence, proving Skinner's guilt.
What is being discussed, now, is additional DNA testing, which Skinner refused to test, pre trial, because he knew it would support his guilt, even more - the only reason he refused to test it, pre trial.
Skinner has used this appeal, based upon his desire to live a little longer, just as his murder victims, Twila and her two mentally challenged sons wanted to.
Why stop the additonal testing? To stop a bad precedent.
If Skinner succeeds, this sets a precedent that, within certain cases, which can be managed, just so, the defendant will be able to go back and say, wait a minute, I don't like the outcome of my trial, because of the strategy I chose, I want a do-over, via new trial or appeals, so maybe I can get a better result next time.
It is a horrible precedent, which the state must fight and for which all criminals and defense counsel are drooling over, both for very good and obvious reasons.
That is why I think the judges will support the state position.
Some in the media, inexcuseably, are not presenting that fact to their readers.
It is "the" important and only reason the state is fighting this fight - to stop criminals, their attorneys and their supporters from gaming the system, even more.
Fourth, the judge can issue a stay, anytime, stopping the execution.
Is this happening in the USA or the Middle East?
The death penalty system is a rotten piece of law, it is riddled with legal errors, is seriously flawed, corrupt and discriminative - an absolute shame and scandal to any civilized society.
Criminal Justice Petition: Withdraw Execution Warrant and Grant DNA Testing to Hank Skinner http://chn.ge/v7tfpO
Thank you!
Justice4Hank