Brian and Jeremy: Thank you for this powerful article. As someone who was one of six "family and friend" witnesses to the 1997 Missouri execution of my friend Samuel McDonald, it is very painful to read this, and to realize that Missouri (along with many other states) has not become any less barbaric over the past 25 years.
Brian & Jeremy: Thanks so very much for tackling this tough issue. So well documented and written. Missouri and the rest of our states, should have a long time ago when the death penalty was reinstated, created an automatic review and rehearing system, fully funded by the state, to provide all necessary resources to take apart each death penalty conviction and sentencing, to insure that, first, not one innocent individual would ever be executed, and second, that justice for the accused/convicted was truly and fully rendered in every iota/jot & tittle involved in the trial and punishment phases of the proceeding. No governor should ever rely simply on his/her own judgment in such matters, nor on the advice and counsel of the governor's staff. They should be presented in a formal fashion the counter arguments, and all of this should be made of record. As you so correctly pointed out the governor has erred greatly in his conclusions that condemned persons have been afforded every due process benefit. Even if that was so, and as you point it, it is not in case after case, there is no harm to the public, nor the family of a victim to at least consider in a very real manner going just beyond the due process line, since a life is in the balance. It seems to me that Christmas time would have been a good time, the right time to have issued a suspension of all pending executions for a set period of time, say 5 years, to allow a full review of each such case, for presentation to the Governor. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to both of you and your families.
Brian and Jeremy: Thank you for this powerful article. As someone who was one of six "family and friend" witnesses to the 1997 Missouri execution of my friend Samuel McDonald, it is very painful to read this, and to realize that Missouri (along with many other states) has not become any less barbaric over the past 25 years.
Brian & Jeremy: Thanks so very much for tackling this tough issue. So well documented and written. Missouri and the rest of our states, should have a long time ago when the death penalty was reinstated, created an automatic review and rehearing system, fully funded by the state, to provide all necessary resources to take apart each death penalty conviction and sentencing, to insure that, first, not one innocent individual would ever be executed, and second, that justice for the accused/convicted was truly and fully rendered in every iota/jot & tittle involved in the trial and punishment phases of the proceeding. No governor should ever rely simply on his/her own judgment in such matters, nor on the advice and counsel of the governor's staff. They should be presented in a formal fashion the counter arguments, and all of this should be made of record. As you so correctly pointed out the governor has erred greatly in his conclusions that condemned persons have been afforded every due process benefit. Even if that was so, and as you point it, it is not in case after case, there is no harm to the public, nor the family of a victim to at least consider in a very real manner going just beyond the due process line, since a life is in the balance. It seems to me that Christmas time would have been a good time, the right time to have issued a suspension of all pending executions for a set period of time, say 5 years, to allow a full review of each such case, for presentation to the Governor. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to both of you and your families.