>>>>Collateral damage! John, I am not even going there.
>>>
>>>What, you against pragmatism?
>>
>>I would hardly call executing innocent people pragmatism.
>
>I wonder how many innocent people have been executed. I'm sure there have been some. And I also wonder how many guilty people have walked via technicality. I think the current system has enough safeguards in place to preclude execution of innocent people. Given all the appeals, technicalities, etc that a person has in a trial, and particularly in a capital case, I don't have a problem with the states executing people who have been adjudicated as guilty. In order to prove a capital case, the state has an extremely high hurdle to cross.


Unless the meaning of "preclude" has changed while I wasn't looking, the current system does NOT have enough safeguards in place. Innocent people HAVE been executed. That's the whole issue.

BTW, as I'm sure you also know, Illinois is not the only state with a moratorium on capital punishment (of the 36 who have capital punishment in the first place). There are a dozen or so.