Death penalty is killing innocent people. (6-97)

Mistakes are made at all levels of court proceedings and mistakes are made in cases involving the death penalty.

It is an undisputed fact (Stanford Law Review) that between 1900 and 1985 in the United States 350 people were condemned to death and on death row who were actually innocent.  Twenty-three of those innocent people were ultimately executed for a crime they did not commit.  The other 327 would have been executed but for the luck of having lived long enough on death row to have the truth found out.

If the legislators vote for the death penalty, they are also voting to execute the occasional innocent human being.

It is strange to me that as Christians, I assume they claim to be Christians, the legislators do not have a moral position against killing the occasional innocent person, i.e. a moral position against the death penalty.

If the legislators are willing to kill innocent people, they have no place representing me.  If the legislators vote for the death penalty in Iowa, they should step down and let less violent people represent this state.

Ruling by the Supreme Court is sick.  (2-2-93)

It’s sick, hideous, monstrous, ugly, ridiculous, stupid, gross and any other bad, base or inhuman thing you can think of. 

“What is”? you ask.

The most recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that says no matter if a person can later be proven innocent, if his trial was “fair,” he must die.

A known innocent person must be executed because the Supreme Court says a trial that is inner-consistent has precedence over truth in the world at large.

“I” am innocent, but “I” could not prove it at the time.  “My” trial had no mistakes.  “I” was sentenced to die.  “I” can now prove “I’m” innocent.  “Too bad,” says the Supreme Court.  You die anyway.

Terry Branstad and other Republicans want to adopt this hideous behavior in the name of all of us Iowans.  They’re sick.