Subject: Re: To Peter and Craig
X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0 -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas
X-Comment: The Transnational Radical Party List
One thing bothers me about Dorry's implication that murder
convictions of innocent people are rare enough not to cause a
significant problem if there were a dramatic increase in the rate of
executions. I have personal knowledge of a number of such cases
which make me wonder. They all involve the issue of self-defense:
the Kung-Fu shcool I attend teaches a *very* hard style and the
students come from varied backgrounds--about half indigent and
inner city and about half with professional careers; the latter
(myself included) rarely get into trouble, but in the last year
or two I have heard of perhaps half a dozen cases where students
have been attacked and swiftly responded with a lethal punch. All
were immediately charged with murder. In three cases, witnesses came
forward and confirmed that they had been attacked, whereupon charges
were dropped. In the remaining instances, this didn't happen and
they ended up in jail. But if a murder conviction resulted in an
automatic death penalty, they would have been executed. It appears
that the police here always file the most serious possible charge
at the outset. But what bothers me is that in none of these cases
was there anything like a careful or thorough proceeding--it appears
that you don't get full due process unless you can afford a good
lawyer, and it seems to me that this problem would multiply in
direct proportion to the rate of executions.
--Craig Harrison, San Francisco
