Aknauta
01-14-2003, 12:54 AM
townhall.com
Paul Craig Roberts
January 14, 2003
Convicting wrongfully
Acting on his loss of confidence in the criminal justice system, Illinois Republican Gov. George H. Ryan commuted the death sentences of all 156 inmates on Illinois' death row to life in prison. The governor's unprecedented action has brought condemnation from prosecutors, law and order conservatives, and victims' families.
Haunted by "the demons of error" that inhabit the criminal justice system and produce countless wrongful convictions, Ryan stopped executions on his watch in order to dramatize the point that capital punishment requires a higher correlation between conviction and guilt than presently exists in the justice system.
Ryan's blanket commutation is not without injustice, as some of those whose lives he has spared are clearly guilty. On the other hand, his stand is consistent with the highest principle of justice as exemplified by famed jurist William Blackstone's dictum that it is better that 10 guilty men go free than one innocent be imprisoned (much less executed).
the problem of criminal justice goes far beyond the death penalty (http://www.townhall.com/columnists/paulcraigroberts/pcr20030114.shtml)
Paul Craig Roberts
January 14, 2003
Convicting wrongfully
Acting on his loss of confidence in the criminal justice system, Illinois Republican Gov. George H. Ryan commuted the death sentences of all 156 inmates on Illinois' death row to life in prison. The governor's unprecedented action has brought condemnation from prosecutors, law and order conservatives, and victims' families.
Haunted by "the demons of error" that inhabit the criminal justice system and produce countless wrongful convictions, Ryan stopped executions on his watch in order to dramatize the point that capital punishment requires a higher correlation between conviction and guilt than presently exists in the justice system.
Ryan's blanket commutation is not without injustice, as some of those whose lives he has spared are clearly guilty. On the other hand, his stand is consistent with the highest principle of justice as exemplified by famed jurist William Blackstone's dictum that it is better that 10 guilty men go free than one innocent be imprisoned (much less executed).
the problem of criminal justice goes far beyond the death penalty (http://www.townhall.com/columnists/paulcraigroberts/pcr20030114.shtml)