Fair Exchange Value

Regardless of your position on whether or not the government should be able execute any of its prisoners, I would hope that you do not share the sentiment of Kent Scheidegger. Schiedegger is the legal director of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation (CJLF), a group that is in favor of allowing the government to use capital
punishment.

As reported by CNN, Schiedegger stated

"I wouldn't say that 20 or 30 cases out of 8,000 constitutes a broken system."

His statement was in response to comments by Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens. Again, according to the CNN report, Stevens said DNA evidence has shown

"... that a substantial number of death sentences have been imposed erroneously.

"It indicates that there must be serious flaws in our administration of criminal justice."

The Death Penalty Information Center, a group that opposes the government's use of the death penalty, is cited by CNN as claiming that more than three dozen death row inmates have been exonerated since 2000.

It seems to me that even supporters of the death penalty should be troubled by the prospect of an innocent man or woman being executed by the state, not to mention the fact that if we execute an innocent, then someone who is guilty has not been brought before the bar of justice.

For those who want to maintain the death penalty, the questions are tough.

To follow up on Schiedegger's comment, how many innocent people executed by the state will constitute a broken system? From another angle, how many innocent people executed is a fair exchange for whatever deterrent effect the death penalty has on the criminal-minded?

Short of requiring DNA evidence in all capital cases, is there anyway to avoid erroneous convictions when no eye witness is available to testify? (And we know that even eye witnesses have been proven to be wrong before.)

Humans are not known for perfection. We make mistakes, and those mistakes are made in all aspects of life. How we accept that reality when a person's life weighs in the balance says a lot about who we are.