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Iamsemisweet -> RE: Murderer and Rapist gets death penalty (1/27/2012 4:16:23 PM)
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For the record, I don't think you are understanding me. I know DNA evidence is not circumstantial. If you read my post, I was discussing why circumstantial evidence is not the unreliable thing many seem to think it is, and why witnesses and physical evidence can't be relied upon all the time. Sorry I wasn't clear.
Like I have also said, I was pretty pro death penalty, until recently. I recognize the crime you talk about was horrible, and there is no question who the perps were. I laughed when they hung that bastard Wesley Allen Dodd, because I knew the world was a better place without him. Unfortunately, my views have changed. I don't believe our justice system is flawless enough to justify CP, since it is applied unevenly, unfairly, and sometimes mistakenly. Again, like I already said, the death penalty is not given based upon the strength of the evidence, which has already been weighed. .
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ORIGINAL: jlf1961
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ORIGINAL: Iamsemisweet
Actually, from a criminal law perspective, circumstantial evidence is not a bad thing, since it rarely changes. Witnesses change their stories, sometimes (i.e. Troy Davis). Physical evidence can be misinterpreted (i.e., all those guys who went to jail for rapes that DNA evidence later showed they didn't commit).
A jury is either going to decide someone is guilty or not. Judges don't sentence people based on the strength of the evidence, that has already been weighed when a determination of guilt was made. In other words, there is no state that has a sentencing guideline that says CP can only be the sentence if the evidence used to convict someone was noncircumstantial.
What made CP palatable to me was that mandatory and discretionary appeals were supposed to insure that the process was fair and fairly applied. That is what is not happening in CP cases, and why I am now so uncomfortable with CP.
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ORIGINAL: jlf1961
Mike, I agree there should be limits to how the death penalty is sought, circumstantial evidence should not be allowed to be the basis for a death penalty case. However, when you have a surviving witness, and the perps being arrested in the victims car FLEEING from the scene, the case becomes air tight.
Unfortunately circumstantial evidence has been used to wrongfully convict people on death penalty cases, and at least one wrongfully convicted individual was executed for a crime where the evidence actually pointed to an unknown individual.
For the record, DNA evidence is not considered circumstantial.
As I said, in this particular case, the perps were captured in a vehicle belonging to the victims while fleeing from the scene. There was also DNA evidence linking one to the rape of the 11 year old daughter who was murdered.
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