[BrianR]

Just why is it that everybody seems to be worried that death penalty cases were "fairly tried", that the convicted really were guilty, that some shred of doubt might remain that the accused could have been innocent?

Where is this sentiment for all those who are jailed (some for life) who might be innocent? I was jailed and I was innocent. Where was my personal bleeding heart law project searching for DNA samples? Who was there to file motions ad nauseum to delay my trial? Why was there no moratorium on jail sentences to spare me the indignity of strip searches and sleeping with one eye open? And what about my lost wages? And my good name? I'll be forever branded as a felon because my name is now in NCIC and I can't get it removed. Who is going to sue to correct that? Where's my compensation for bills that weren't paid?

I'm really getting sick of people telling me that just because there is no possibility of parole from death is sufficient grounds to revisit the case time and again over decades until a stay is granted by some left-wing extremist governor who "just isn't sure"... as if he were on the jury who had to weigh the evidence and convict the creep and sentence him. The governor's job is to sign the warrant and schedule the execution, not review the case to make sure no stone was missed.

Sure, it's possible that once in a great while an innocent man (or woman) will be tried, convicted and executed wrongly and I deplore that state of affairs. I think that I'd rather see my tax money go to paying for a good attorney for these cases than for, say, the Tennessee Valley Authority or the Rural Electrification Project. But let's face it... more killers are taken off death row for procedural errors than for innocence.

I swear, I need to come up with a whole page of links to information resources that show how an executed killer doesn't kill again, for sure. No more inmates stabbed with a plastic shard, no guards strangled and beaten to death for not allowing illegal conduct to go on. And how the executed criminals really were guilty and how DNA evidence discovered after the fact proved their guilt all the more. And studies showing how much money might be saved by ridding society of people who refuse to live by the rules and endanger the rest of us by their own actions.

And I need to go to the grocery store so I can have breakfast. I hate it when I wake up and find that my milk is now gone and I get leftover Tuna Helper to eat instead of my favorite breakfast cereal.
Also, I got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning.