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January 13, 2006
Not so sure about that!
From this article about DNA testing comes this statistic:
The exonerations are the cause, and the doubts they've raised about the death penalty and the justice system overall, said Richard Dieter, director of the Death Penalty Information Center. "It cuts across liberal versus conservative lines, party lines. Everybody would agree that innocent people shouldn't be executed."
Maybe it is just me, but didn't something else pretty significant happen between 1998/2000 and 2004/2005? Of course I refer to George W. Bush being elevated from governor of Texas, where he was execution happy and had a large state death row to work with to President, where the federal government rarely uses the death penalty. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for DNA testing being used both to convict criminals and to exonerate the innocent, but I think George Bush no longer being Governor of Texas has more to do with the dropoff of executions than DNA (so far at least).
This fascinating page seems to prove me right. It lists everybody executed in Texas along with information about the executed and a last statement. In 2000 when W. was out to prove his conservative credentials the state executed 40 people, a little less than one a week on average. Last year they executed just 18. That difference accounts for 88% of the nationwide drop from 2000 to 2005.
Some of the last statements are potentially chilling, especially when DNA proponents finally do prove that an innocent person has been executed, which is bound to happen eventually. Many of the confessions of guilt are quite moving. Should be required reading for people on both sides of the issue.
Posted by Chris at January 13, 2006 11:58 AM
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