>All of this is valid in the trial phase but not in the sentencing phase.

No, but calls into question whether or not this guy got a fair trial in the first place. Seems to me that they were going to give him a fair trial, then hang him.

>"Competent" may be too strong a word. The assumption being made is that he had a lawyer at some point who was working with a license to practice law and had not been sanctioned previous to the case.

Marica Clark has a license too. < g >

>There is proof that there was perjured with respect to unrelated issues but there is no proof that perjury was done with respect to the facts of the case.

Really?

Hale Center's police chief, Richard Cordell, testified there was no local crime-stoppers' group but was forced to acknowledge on the witness stand that he was, in fact, one of the group's founders.

Riley Rogers, an investigator for the district attorney's office, took the stand and denied any knowledge of the $1,000 payment. The appeals team later uncovered bank records that linked the $1,000 payment to him.

>It seems that this situation is more an indictment of the Illinois justice system than capital punishment.

And is the Texas system any better?

>Personally, I think the "correct" verdict came back. Before I get a stream of WTF, I do not think the "right" verdict came back. I thought the case that was put on by Clark and Dodd could have been better put together by my junior high school Civics class.

Agreed.

>According to the report, he confessed to the second crime. I don't need to hear the case. Personally, I don't think confessing to something to make it quicker and less painless to the prosecution should get you any brownie points. If you did the crime, you should pay the penalty. In my mind, if you kill someone or if you are responsible for the death of someone during the commission of a crime (felony murder), then you should die. I don't believe in life without parole for these types of crimes.

A jury, who you are putting a lot of faith in, thought otherwise.

>Does that make me a hard-ass? If so, so be it. It's also probably why I would never be elected to a public office. :-)

I'll still vote for ya, but only if you keep contributing to the VFP and SQL Server forums < g >.