January 22, 201412 yr Right, but just because someone has a low level of intelligence doesn't warrant their execution, does it? How about this example: Eddie Joe Lloyd "Eddie Joe Lloyd thought he could assist the police with an ongoing investigation into a 16-year-old Michigan girl's brutal rape and murder. In 1984, he contacted the police from the mental institution where he resided and gave them suggestions on how to better handle the case. The police visited him on several occasions and conducted interviews, hoping to gain even more information. During the interviews, the police told Lloyd, who was heavily medicated at the time, that if he admitted to committing the crime, he would help them "smoke out" the real killer, according to Ben Schmitt and Suzette Hackney in a Detroit Free Press article. Lloyd was eager to help and agreed to confess, even though he didn't commit the crime. During a 2002 Fox News Network interview with Hannity and Colmes, Barry Scheck, a founder of The Innocence Project at the Benjamin N. Cordozo School of Law, suggested that the police fed Lloyd information concerning the crime, such as the location of the body, the type of jeans the girl was wearing, and the fact that underwear were left hanging from a tree. Lloyd then signed a written confession and allowed his statement to be tape-recorded. He had no idea that at that moment he had signed away his freedom. To Lloyd's surprise, as soon he signed the statement and confessed, the police arrested him for the girl's murder. He immediately felt betrayed. Lloyd tried desperately to protest his innocence, but his pleas fell on deaf ears and the case went to trial in 1985. Based on the substantial evidence, namely the tape-recorded statement and the written confession, Lloyd was found guilty of the crime and sentenced to life in prison." That's dirty cops taking advantage of a sick individual. Not what I was talking about.
January 22, 201412 yr Should being "fool" enough to confess to a crime that you didn't commit mean they deserve the death penalty or life imprisonment though? I question the level of intelligence of LOTS of people, but that doesn't mean I think they should be put in jail or put to death. I just cant understand why somebody of sane mind and body would confess to such a serious crime they didn't commit. If evidence points in the direction of a certain individual and that individual confesses, how are you supposed to handle it?
January 22, 201412 yr I just cant understand why somebody of sane mind and body would confess to such a serious crime they didn't commit. If evidence points in the direction of a certain individual and that individual confesses, how are you supposed to handle it? I think the point is, a lot of the people that are arrested for these crimes aren't of sane body and mind, and that's part of the reason why they confess to crimes they didn't commit.
January 22, 201412 yr I just cant understand why somebody of sane mind and body would confess to such a serious crime they didn't commit. If evidence points in the direction of a certain individual and that individual confesses, how are you supposed to handle it? I don't understand why somebody would confess to that either....but the fact is, coerced confessions have happened and continue to happen. So do false convictions. It's hard enough to live with the consequences of sending someone to jail for something they haven't done. However, even if they're in jail, they have some chance (albeit very little chance) to prove their innocence. Not the same story when it comes to executed convicts.
January 22, 201412 yr I don't understand why somebody would confess to that either....but the fact is, coerced confessions have happened and continue to happen. So do false convictions. It's hard enough to live with the consequences of sending someone to jail for something they haven't done. However, even if they're in jail, they have some chance (albeit very little chance) to prove their innocence. Not the same story when it comes to executed convicts. Semi-related question for you, Duece....ever watched this documentary?
January 26, 201412 yr A SCARY fact: Since 1973' date=' there have been 143 people in the United States whose convictions were overturned after having already been convicted to the death penalty.[/url'] Death penalty convictions, nationally, have averaged somewhere around 100 per year within that time period. So if you figure there have been 4,000 death penalty convictions in the last 40 years, and 143 exonerations in the last 40 years, then you can roughly estimate that, based on those numbers, approximately 3.575% of all individuals sentenced to the death penalty are innocent. So statistically speaking, chances are 7 out of every 200 people sitting on death row in the United States are innocent of the crimes for which they were convicted. With those stats, how likely do you think it is that we have already put an innocent person to death?
January 27, 201412 yr With those stats, how likely do you think it is that we have already put an innocent person to death? I can't possibly imagine that it hasn't happened already.
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