INDY500
Rock n' Roll Doggie Band-aid
I don't think you understand what I'm saying. I'm not trying to be smarmy.
There is no mechanism in our system for there being 100 percent certainty. On that we can agree, correct? Juries find people guilty if they believe the defendant is guilty "beyond a reasonable doubt." They are not legally asked anything further than that. So, my question to you is: who is it that is deciding a person is 100 percent certainly guilty? It's certainly not the judge or the jury, since we've just established the threshold they meet. The truth is that we have no mechanism for determining such a thing, and it's intentional. The people who designed the system recognized its inherent flaws and gave the system options to correct its own mistakes. No one is 100 percent guilty, otherwise not everyone would be entitled to an appeals process.
Now, if you want to make the argument that there should be such a mechanism, that's a separate conversation. If you believe there are certain people who are so obviously guilty that the death penalty should be in play, make that argument. I'll vehemently disagree with you, but at least you're making a case that is logical. Right now, you're arguing that there's such a thing as 100 percent guilt and it simply isn't true.
I can say with 100% certainty that Major Hasan killed 13 people in the Ft Hood shooting and appropriately now awaits execution.
There are moral arguments against the death penalty but your "reasonable doubt" argument isn't an argument against the death penalty, it's an argument against common law and trial by jury.
If it isn't moral to execute someone convicted under our jurisprudence system how is it not just as immoral to send someone off to prison for life with such uncertainty inherent in the system?
Why have jails when convicts can never be more than kinda-sorta-pretty-sure-but-then-again guilty?
I'm just as opposed to innocent people being wrongfully executed as you but wishy-washy, pragmatic-to-the-point-of-indecision is no way to run a legal system either.