Texas Corrects a Verdict Decades Too Late

I'm sure his skeleton appreciates the decision...

Texas did not become a Republican majority state until 1990. Just sayin’….

This was a travesty of justice in a state then governed by Democrats, with a Democrat governor who could have pardoned that man. Is this story newsworthy now to discredit the Democrats, or just to raise racial discord?

Government, be expecting to hear from Benjamin Crump shortly.

This is my one big argument against capital punishment. Innocent men can and do get wrongly convicted. Prosecutors either get it wrong or are corrupt, and juries do whatever they are led to do. Once you have killed someone there is no redress; no remedy. The injustice is done and cannot be undone. This shame should stay on Texas forever.

I am pro capital punishment, but I hear #5's argument. Fortunately, these cases are the exception. Unfortunately, many guilty convicts are housed and fed for decades. You don't throw out the baby with the bath water.

Whenever I hear of convicted murderers who were later proven innocent, I wonder how many more people were later murdered by the real killer.

#7 nails it here. The personal problem with wrongful conviction is the injustice and misfortune to the individual, but the social problem is a guilty person went free. This was well put in Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns, perhaps the best comic book ever created. Batman looks at a TV studio full of dead people and says, "I'll add them to the list, Joker. The list of people I've murdered by letting you live." The bottom line is, our current so-called justice system is very bad at identifying and removing murderers from our society. The biggest flaw in this is that people who clearly are murderers have to actually kill someone before they get stopped. I've never understood why someone who tries to murder someone by shooting them and misses should be treated any differently than someone who actually kills someone. Both are clearly murderers, one just hasn't succeeded yet. Having said all of that to betray my bias, I've never accepted that it is better for 10 guilty to go free than one to be wrongly imprisoned. I would much rather have more innocent people in prison than have more dangerous guilty people free to harm others. As lousy as it is to be wrongly convicted, letting 10 murderers go free will get even more people killed.

I also am in favor of capital punishment - but only when the crime is heinous and the criminal is caught red-handed so that there can be no doubt. We are learning how AI can pervert what we hear and see. DNA is subject to mistakes and fraud. But I also believe that juries of lay folks without any experience or expertise are easily swayed by lawyers and so-called experts as well as smooth-talking prosecutors who are elected on the basis of their conviction promises and records. I believe that we need jurors selected from a pool of professionals who through experience and training might see through the legalese. I also believe there should be harsh consequences for lawyers and prosecutors who pervert the justice system with monetary consequences for the communities whose representatives harm the innocent. In Texas the state pays those penalties, but I believe that the cities or counties responsible should foot the bill. If a homeowner saw their taxes climb because they elected a prosecutor responsible for a false conviction, they might think twice about reelecting that person.