I'm pro-death-penalty but not as enthusiastic about it as you are. My problem with it is that it's administered by .gov - and we all know how well that works. We've seen by now a number of cases where the "justice" system has prosecuted someone not because they thought he was guilty, but because they thought they could get a conviction, only to see that person freed after years or even decades behind bars after being proven innocent.

The death penalty ought to be reserved for truly heinous crimes where there is no doubt as to the guilt of the perpetrator(s). Then, upon declaration of guilt they should be lead out of the courthouse, shot behind the ear, and the bodies should be dumped in the nearest dumpster. We do the same for rabid dogs, we ought to do it to rabid people.

Jeffery Dahmer would have lasted about 90 seconds in my world, for example.

Wow. Singing my song, Kevin. I have the same concerns. I'm ideologically and philosophically pro death penalty, but I don't trust the system to get it right, not the way it is. Until there are serious consequences for the rare bad cop or prosecutor who commit serious misconduct I will not have enough confidence.
I think the vast majority of cops and prosecutors are personally honest and principled, but those who are will not "rat out" those who are not. And that scares the hell out of me. Read about the Cruz case in Illinois. Three times convicted and sentenced to death, on the basis of false testimony from cops and the district attorney. It is a horrendous story. And they were not punished. Prosecutors are never punished for trying to convict on knowingly false evidence.

"The death penalty ought to be reserved for truly heinous crimes where there is no doubt as to the guilt of the perpetrator(s)."

Exactly.

We should think of this as '1000 guaranteed non-recidivists' since 1976.
"Him that strikes first-lives longest, thats my fancy.
Dead men don't bite, thems my views"
Billy Bones

Three times convicted and sentenced to death, on the basis of false testimony from cops and the district attorney.

Normally, giving false testimony in a death penalty case can get you tried for attempted murder.

You would think, wouldn't ya?

But that is a pipedream. It doesn't happen. Read about Cruz.

The most serious consequences I ever read about was a six year sentence that a state trooper/lab tech got somewhere for actually lifting fingerprints from a dependents house and placing them on a gas can(?). It was an arson murder case, but I'm not sure it was capital murder.

I wonder what the count is if you add in the ones that were aced by people protecting themselves from thugs

Never mind whinning about the damn crinimals who commit these crimes and the bleedinghearts who are always lighting their stupid candles for the exicuted crinimals what about the victims and their families more attention should be focused on the victims families and screw the murderers who get themselves on death row by commiting these crimes

I haven't read anyone weeping over the deserving executed. It is the way too easily executed innocents. Kevin nailed it. Only the most deserving and, especially, only slam dunk cases.
For instance, no death penalty for "jailhouse informant as proof" type cases.

Kevin Baker wrote:
"Then, upon declaration of guilt they should be lead out of the courthouse, shot behind the ear, and the bodies should be dumped in the nearest dumpster."

Because only lawyers benefit from death penalty convictions (appeal, after appeal, etc.), I'd rather see more "life with no chance of parole" sentences. In the rare case of a death penalty conviction, the sentence should be carried out immediately, in the presence of the jury, to ensure they "really mean it."

I also want to see "hard labor" convictions--lots of 'em--with any "monies earned" to be provided to the victims.