December 14, 2004
Death by Insouciance
Acidman has a good post up on the Peterson death penalty verdict. I agree with him.
I have major issues with the deliverance of the death penalty in cases based merely on reasonable doubt. You may know in your heart of hearts that filthy cocksucker committed the crime, but if you can't prove it then you have no business engaging in state-sanctioned murder.
Lookit: I believe in the death penalty. But the only way to protect it, and, yes, even fertilize it, is to only administer it in those cases where forensic evidence or incorruptible multiple eyewitness testimony confirms it. The concept of "I know he did it" is crap. You don't know shit. Only in an environment where the condemned are irrefutably guilty can you take solace in the ultimate act of state: the taking of a human being's life.
Have innocents ever been put to death? Probably. I would submit that the "innocent" was probably guilty of another death penalty crime for which they were never caught, but that is irrelevant to our discussion.
Duty on Death Row will, in macabre fashion, spare Scott Peterson's life for a while. He will live longer in solitude than he would as a mere lifer. He will, of course, be gutted eventually, but until that time he is, ironically, de-sanctioned by the state.
The average life on CA death row is sixteen years, and they haven't even begun to file the appeals yet.
It's not over 'til it's over. And, I agree. This one gives me the willies. Of all the jurors that I've seen interviewed, all of them spoke of, basically, how much they despised him.
Given that, most of us could be sentenced to death.
Posted by: jmflynny at December 15, 2004 12:16 AMI didn't follow the case as closely as some, but to give the death penalty without absolute proof that he killed his wife and unborn son is just wrong! *and I do believe in the death penalty* Hopefully he can win an appeal and get life; that way he will pay everyday.
Posted by: Michele at December 15, 2004 4:35 AMSince he's on death row, for the crimes that he is, somebody might off him before he gets the needle.
Over the years, and after the appeal process is dead and forgotten, some reporter will give him an hour, ask him why he did it, and we'll get the confession that we all crave...
Posted by: Key at December 15, 2004 9:24 AMI dunno. I've had a few tangles with our wonderful legal system over the past three years that leave me feeling very uneasy about this verdict. Scott may be a complete prick, but I don't believe that the State had the goods on him.
Never forget--- the same thing could happen to YOU, even if you're innocent.
Posted by: Acidman at December 15, 2004 1:20 PMNo, the same thing COULDN'T happen to me. Because if my husband died, I wouldn't be playing golf or seducing a boyfriend while everyone else is memorializing and searching for a body.
At the very least, he is an idiot jackass cad, but I think he's also a murderer.
Still, as I admitted earlier, I won't feel resolved about it either until I hear the confession. And I do believe it will come, but it may be a few years out.
Posted by: Key at December 15, 2004 1:56 PM