…but I’ve often wondered about the toll these convictions take on the individual.
In our rush-to-judgment society, can you imagine what would happen if you were to happen upon a man who was asking you for a job, who told you that he’d just spent the last 16 years of his life behind bars?
What would you do? Would you offer the man a job? Would you pass him over because you’d think he were “damaged goods?” That he “must have done something wrong” in order to have been in the wrong place at the wrong time?
This article in the New York Times discusses the life of a former prisoner, Jeffery Mark Deskovic, who was exonerated because DNA evidence was not able to be tested at the time of his trial.
I thought the article was well-written, and provided quite a bit of insight into what happens when we incarcerate someone who was 17, for a rape and murder they ultimately had nothing to do with.
I am a reformed death penalty proponent. As such, when I see news such as this article from the New York Times, I’m relieved. Often these delays in executions make the family of the victims feel that justice has been delayed.
But has it?
I could get into all manner of debates on how much it costs to incarcerate someone for life versus how much it costs to prosecute someone to death, and we still wouldn’t answer the fundamental questions that truly need to be answered:
- What is an appropriate punishment for someone who takes the life of another, intentionally; and,
- What gives us the right, as humans, to take the life of anyone, even for punishment’s sake?
It would be interesting to hear the opinions of the one or two readers who actually do read this blog.
What are your thoughts?
I have decided to support John Edwards in ‘08…
I’ve been looking at the candidates who are running for President of the United States of America, in the Democratic Party field, and I am happy to throw my support (and my money) behind Mr. John Edwards, the former Senator from South Carolina.
For quite a while now, I have been under the impression that Ms. Hillary Clinton is beholden to special interests, and, while I don’t see a proverbial “smoking gun,” I would rather not wait for the evidence to come in the form of a proverbial “mushroom cloud.” You see, it’s not that I don’t like her – I just feel that it’s difficult to get a straight answer from her on any questions that are asked. I don’t prefer that in my politicians. I prefer direct answers to direct questions.
As far as Mr. Barack Obama, the senator from Illinois, is concerned, I like him. I think he’s the genuine article. I can see why people in his great state would send him to the Senate to get their bidding done for them. However, in reviewing his plans on-line, I find them to be lacking in the substance required in order for me to make a decision in his favor.
I urge those who read this blog to, of course, make their own minds up based on the evidence presented to them. However, before making your choice, ask yourself if this country can survive another four years at the hands of a president who is at the beck-and-call of special interests who only have their pocketbooks in mind.
