[SOC] Death penalty

[Paul Bartlett]

Hello everyone,

Serious subject.

The state of Texas is in less than an hour due to execute a(nother) man.

This is despite the fact that there appears to be evidence that the man
(John Elliot) whilst no angel may not have been guilty of all the crimes for
which he has been convicted and condemned to death. And there is a
suggestion that a deal with the DA placed all the culpabilty upon him whilst
the real perpatrators received only custodial sentences. Inexperienced and
perhaps incompetent legal team too.

The defence seems to have been denied the time to perform DNA tests which
*might* have mitigated his misdeeds by the Death Machinery that seems to
have, I think, the support of around 80% of Texas residents.

In the UK, we abolished the death penalty in the early 60's. The IRA
outrages in the 1970's led to the imprisonment of people who might otherwise
have been executed. Subsequent inquiry led to the release of individuals who
might otherwise have been murdered by the state.

Judicial execution has no place in the modern world and it's the one aspect
of American culture that I deprecate (I was going to say 'despise' but
thought it a little strong).

For my own part, I'm prepared for a proportion of my tax pounds to be spent
accepting the fact that some people we send to prison for 'life' are in fact
innocent. If (when) this should be proven, then we can release the
individual, make (financial) amends and move on. If you've killed him/her,
then you can only make hollow statements of regret.

Paul :-(

p.s. The practise of keeping people on "Death Row" for more than a decade, I
find nothing less that obscene.