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Re:Retired detective: We got it wrong in Robert Roberson's d... by anamax on Friday May 24, 2024 @06:53PM (#40471196)
Several innocent people die from being imprisoned every day.

No one cares, because they die in the prison infirmary, but they're just as dead and they were killed because of their conviction, just like they were executed. (No, I'm not talking about folks on death row, although innocents on death row also die in the infirmary.)

Not only do we kill more innocents that way in absolute numbers, it's also greater in percentage numbers. (Death penalty cases get lots of review. We can argue about whether it's enough, but it's far more review than life without parole, not to mention lesser sentences which end up being life.)

Re:Retired detective: We got it wrong in Robert Roberson's d... by andrewjf on Friday May 24, 2024 @07:07PM (#40471269)
This kind of argument is exhausting. I don't know if there's a name for it or if there's some kind of "razor" for it, like; "Moving in any direction of bettering things is always going to be confronted by someone who thinks it's not good enough and there's some far bigger problem somewhere else so let me distract from the actual good that's trying to be done here"

To the actual point - I do think there's a difference between inmates dying in prison for other reasons (and we should reduce those) vs. sentencing someone to execution for a crime they didn't commit.

Re:Retired detective: We got it wrong in Robert Roberson's d... by anamax on Friday May 24, 2024 @07:33PM (#40471404)
I didn't say anything about doing less or that your concerns were invalid.

My point is that there's more "bang for the buck" wrt saving innocents from being dying due to wrongful "not death penalty" convictions, even if you discount "dying in the infirmary" quite a bit relative to "dying in the chair."

I'm not saying that you shouldn't care about the death penalty.

My comment is addressed to people who care about dying due to wrongful conviction.

Re:Retired detective: We got it wrong in Robert Roberson's d... by 20after4 on Saturday May 25, 2024 @12:21AM (#40472643)
On top of that, all the people who die in policy custody before they are even convicted of a crime. Or before even being accused of a crime, simply because of trigger happy cops.
Re:Retired detective: We got it wrong in Robert Roberson's d... by Nevermark on Saturday May 25, 2024 @05:01PM (#40477834)
> My point is that there's more "bang for the buck" wrt saving innocents from being dying due to wrongful "not death penalty" convictions, even if you discount "dying in the infirmary" quite a bit relative to "dying in the chair."

If the system doesn’t care when an innocent is actually sentenced to death and executed, why would it care if they die at all?

I don’t think there is any predictable “bang for the buck”.

If anything, more “bang” is achieved by shaming the system towards better justice wherever it will be most publicly noticed.

Creating a halo for more change.

The case’s dramatic factors are why people put up their own resources into fighting it, and why we are hearing about it. And why the challenge has any chance.

Re:Retired detective: We got it wrong in Robert Roberson's d... by latentsea on Saturday May 25, 2024 @01:49AM (#40472901)
Whataboutism?
Re:Retired detective: We got it wrong in Robert Roberson's d... by CreateAccount50 on Saturday May 25, 2024 @05:50AM (#40473913)
Part of the issue is that the United States has 25% of the world's prison population and only 6% of Total population the world. When you are the jailingest country in the world per capita by a large margin - More than Russia, Saudi Arabia, iran - You got the question how flippantly we put people in a cage.
Re:Retired detective: We got it wrong in Robert Roberson's d... by datavirtue on Saturday May 25, 2024 @09:15AM (#40474874)
What if all those other jurisdictions are doing it wrong? The US, in my opinion, is the only justice system with sane prison terms.
Re:Retired detective: We got it wrong in Robert Roberson's d... by giraffe_lady on Saturday May 25, 2024 @10:05AM (#40475148)
Judged by how effective they are right? At preventing crime and especially recidivism? We compare extremely well against our peer nations on these metrics, the ones who have much less "sane prison terms." Right?