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    Re: Execution by lethal injection in USA Archived Message

    Posted by Raskolnikov on August 20, 2020, 7:43 am, in reply to "Re: Execution by lethal injection in USA"

    I think Deathpenaltyinfo.org is meant as a resource for anti-death penalty groups to use to focus their protests/legal motions, etc. They make a big deal about being neutral but they are critical of the implementation of the death penalty.

    I agree with you on the substance though. Capital punishment is barbaric and as applied in America it is indescribably disgusting. This latest move to restart federal executions smacks of being a part of the dumpster fire's desperate "Law and Order" campaign push.

    I'm reading "Smoke but no Fire" at the moment which starts with the amazing statistic that one third of all known exonerations involved cases where NO CRIME was actually committed, i.e. the police said it was murder but it was an accident, etc.

    The "Scalia challenge", named after the execrable Antonin Scalia (who once made a supreme court judgement that "evidence of actual innocence is not enough for habeas relief in a death penalty case", i.e. even if you can prove you didn't do it, if you had a fair trail then tough shit), stated that if the death penalty was so unfair and innocent people had been executed the anti-death penalty lobby would be shouting their names from the rooftops. Well they have been, but he just wouldn't hear them (what he actually meant was "we", the system, have never accepted anyone has been wrongfully executed.

    Two of the most egregious examples are Carlos De Luna and Cameron Todd Willingham. There is a great book about the former called "The Wrong Carlos" written by the Innocent Project out of Columbia Law School. This is an inredibly detailed examination of the case and pretty much conclusive proof that he was innocent. It's like a bad movie in some ways; the crime was actually committed by another Carlos who was incredibly similar in appearance to De Luna, so much so that their own family members confused them at times.

    On the Willingham case there are a lot of sources. One of the best is the film "Indendiary: The Cameron Willingham Case" which is available on Vimeo for like £3.00 or something. (Link here: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/incendiary) It's a pretty devastating watch and I end up cursing at the screen whenever I see it) This demonstrates that there was ample evidence he was innocent, and in fact no crime had been committed (murder by arson in this case was actually an accident), WHILE he was still alive but Texas went ahead and killed him anyway. Since his death there have been more revelations showing that the only "evidence" against him that wasn't utterly refuted, a jail-house snitch, had been suborned by offering the snitch a reduction in his charges and a truck and a job when he got out. This offer was made by an ex-judge!

    Another case that sounds like a bad movie that is ongoing in Texas is that of Rodney Reed. He's been on death row for 22 years for a crime he almost certainly didn't commit. His only problem is the actual murderer was a cop at the time and he and other cops covered it up with and framed Reed. The cop was later sent to prison for rape and threats to kill and one of his cop buddies was suicided. Most of the police department at the time of the conviction has since been removed for corruption. The actualy story is way more involved than my scattergun precis above. This is a decent video for starters:

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    There isn't one place that has all the details on this case and you have to search here and there to get the full insanity of it. Texas are definitely trying to kill him although the supreme court were making positive noises at his last appeal, albeit while turning down the actual motion in front of them!

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