Stage 6: "The End of Death Row" Response

Lauren made some excellent points in her discussion of the death penalty in Texas. She argued that the death penalty is simply sinking to the level of the criminals who have been convicted of these serious crimes. I agree with that but as she pointed out allowing all of the criminals who have life sentences to live in prisons puts a huge financial burden on the state. The public would be outraged if taxes were increased to pay for the prisoners who were sentenced to die in prison, this is where the death penalty comes into play. If the prisoners are going to die in prison anyway, this speeds up the process. That sounds terrible to say but keep in mind these people were not put on death row for their service to society; they are criminals, murderers, rapists, thieves. This is the image Texans have in mind when discussing the death penalty; it's all people who deserve it. Or is it?

In Lauren's "The End of Death Row" she also discussed the possibility of a false conviction. This would result in innocent people being put to death in Texas prisons. The hard truth is that this does happen. But how can the government be certain of the person who committed the crime without witnesses? And even then, what if it was dark and the person was misidentified? There are a lot of things that can happen to falsely convict a person and there is no way the government can "make it up" to someone who is dead. This happens a lot with people who were wrongly held prisoner. When their innocence, is proven, they are offered money or some other "compensation" or what have you. This false imprisonment is hard enough, what if the innocent party was murdered by the government with a later discovery of their innocence? How does the government deal with that? What are the families supposed to do?

These are all questions I do not have the answers to. I cannot think of a plan that could right the wrongs of the government in this sense. Policies need to change as far as punishment goes in Texas. I am not against the death penalty if there is undoubted proof. I believe people who do horrible things deserve horrible things themselves. The issue of innocence is what gets me. I do not know how the government can possibly make a plan that allots time to prove innocence. Really, it's an issue of revenue. Allowing these people to live longer is just another price tag to the government. This vision needs to change.