[BrianR]

It's hard for me to say. I feel that execution is warranted in certain cases. But I also feel that there is entirely too much misconduct and hocus-pocus in such cases. I think the process should be different if the state wants to execute someone.

Allow me to suggest what I would do in MY country, should I ever get one.

The defendant is allowed to choose his legal team from any eligible attorneys in the country, whom are paid for by taxpayers. DNA evidence, if it exists, is mandatory. All evidence must be presented at trial, whether exculpatory or not. The jury is doubled from twelve to twenty four, selected at random from all adult citizens, who must be paid their regular wages for each day on the jury. No excuses will be accepted except in extreme hardship, such as the person is in hospital or some such. If the selectee has no wages for any reason they must be paid $100 a day. All must agree on the verdict.

The appeal is automatic and also taxpayer funded. The trial and sentence is to be reviewed by the Supreme Court for errors, misconduct and civil rights violations. Any new evidence may be introduced at this time. The Supreme court has one year to complete the review and either confirm the sentence or commute it to life imprisonment. They may not transmute a life sentence to death. All such trials are public and must be broadcast. No delays will be acceptable unless approved by the judge.

Once the death penalty has been approved, the defendant has 30 days to order their affairs and then the execution will be carried out. The execution shall be televised on Pay Per View, with proceeds going to a victim's relief fund.

I have no problem with the state executing a convicted criminal. I have a problem with the process being so flawed and drawn-out. While in my system there is no time limit to the trial, the appeal is limited to one year and mandatory. The accused is given every opportunity to defend themselves and there is no excuse for not having a proper attorney given that the state pays for his fees (which ought to be capped at a reasonable level). The reasons given for appealing a death sentence now are usually not based on the crime or trial, but with the method, or ineffective counsel (public defenders with no death penalty experience). The prosecutor always fields his best team, paid for by taxpayers. The defense (especially for poor people) is second-string at best. Rarely do you hear of the top law firms who take on death penalty cases with their best lawyers.

In my system, the defense gets the best lawyers they can select. Since there will be other factors I didn't mention (darn post limitations!) such as prosecutors not being immune from liability in misconduct cases, I think the state will hesitate to apply capital punishment in any but the most certain cases. I think I have biased the system in such a way that no one will be convicted soley on circumstantial evidence and unreliable eyewitness testimony.

That said, the way we as a nation apply the death penalty is so flawed that it might as well be abolished. It seems that every day I hear of another person sentenced to death being released due to various reasons that should have been caught much earlier. The same goes for various other crimes such as rape. We have a guy in Texas now who was in jail for 18 years before being exonerated. Under compensation guidelines, the state owes him something like 14 million dollars but they are balking at paying him due to some minor technicality in wording on his release paperwork. The original trial was flawed and the prosecutor was in possession of evidence that exonerated the defendant but purposely withheld it to get a conviction. The state convicted an innocent man, imprisoned him for 18 years, and now they refuse to compensate him according to their own rules AND refuse to hold that prosecutor liable for obvious misconduct.

In short, I believe that we, as citizens, have lost control over our own government and unless we wake up and do something fast, we are headed for a police state and a total loss of civil rights.