Glenn Ford was on death row for 30yrs then freed, is this why the death penalty

1. 69

   vveaseyposted 11 years ago

   Glenn Ford was on death row for 30yrs then freed, is this why the death penalty should be repealed?
   
   Glen Ford a black man was convicted in 1984 by an all white jury in Louisiana, of a crime he didn't commit. He was scheduled to be executed in 1991, but evidence was brought forth to prove his innocence. Isn't this reason enough to repeal the death penalty if the innocent can be wrongly executed?
   See his story here http://www.theatlantic.com/national/arc … ow/284179/
   
   

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2. 72

   MizLiotposted 11 years ago

   In the UK, the death sentence was abolished in the 1960s. In the decade prior to that, a man named Timothy Evans was executed for the murder of his wife and child - it turned out that he was totally innocent and that his next-door neighbour was a serial killer. Also in the 1950s, a man named Derek Bentley was executed because a police officer had been shot and killed. Derek Bentley did not shoot the officer, his companion did, but because the companion wasn't classed as an adult, Bentley ended up receiving the punishment instead. If you wrongfully execute someone and then find out years later that the person was innocent, what can you do? You can't give them their life back. In the case of Glenn Ford, the man spent half of his life in prison, and he can't have the thirty years back, but he can move on and try to start a new life for himself. It would have been much worse if he had been executed too. I don't believe in the death penalty at all, even in the case of someone who is most certainly guilty of the crime, because it's not really a punishment to kill them - it just means that once they're dead, they'll no longer have to think or care about what they did. The death penalty should also be abolished because it's basically a case of 'you killed someone, so we're going to punish you by killing you as well'. There's no lesson, and we lower ourselves to the same level as the killer by taking their life too.

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3. 0

   sheilamyersposted 11 years ago

   I think that's just one example of that happening and is exactly why the death penalty should be abolished. Not only are they freeing people from prison who were actually innocent, there have been people executed and it was later proven they were innocent. I consider even one innocent man or woman dying enough proof that the system of punishment is flawed and needs to be stopped.

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