# After Tsarnaev is in the ground, should America reconsider its capital punishment policy? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [March 19, 2014, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/after-tsarnaev-is-in-the-ground-should-america-reconsider-its-capital-punishment-policy/684052 "2014-03-19T01:52:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2014, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/after-tsarnaev-is-in-the-ground-should-america-reconsider-its-capital-punishment-policy/684052/141 "2014-03-21T17:38:30Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > Anyone in favor of the death penalty should, in my view, spend a week reading the [Innocence Project](http://www.innocenceproject.org/know/)’s results. > > 314 people exonerated thus far through use of DNA. Good. That means we don’t have to worry about people being executed when DNA would exonerate them. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2014, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/after-tsarnaev-is-in-the-ground-should-america-reconsider-its-capital-punishment-policy/684052/142 "2014-03-21T17:39:39Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Sure it can. The argument is that even if you are not opposed to the death penalty on principle, you can see there are numerous glaring flaws in its implementation. Then let’s improve its implementation. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2014, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/after-tsarnaev-is-in-the-ground-should-america-reconsider-its-capital-punishment-policy/684052/143 "2014-03-21T17:41:33Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > And yet somehow the proof failed. Note that the Innocence Project seeks new trials on behalf of people _who have exhausted the appeals process_. Then it seems to me that the fault lies with their lawyers who managed to exhaust the appeals process without actually using the evidence that would prove their client not guilty. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2014, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/after-tsarnaev-is-in-the-ground-should-america-reconsider-its-capital-punishment-policy/684052/144 "2014-03-21T18:01:13Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Then let’s improve its implementation. Ok. Where shall we start? The lack of money and manpower for public defenders? The fact that prosecutors sometimes don’t share evidence? The systemic bias against minority and poor defendants? The tactics police use to coerce confessions from defendants? Jailhouse snitches who make up confessions to reduce their own sentences? Shaky eyewitness testimony? The way prosecutors and politicians are hellbent on winning convictions and biased against revisiting them? I’m probably forgetting some stuff, but if you can think of ways to address those you’ll improve the entire criminal justice system substantially. > [@Smapti](#): > > Then it seems to me that the fault lies with their lawyers who managed to exhaust the appeals process without actually using the evidence that would prove their client not guilty. I am sure lawyer error isn’t uncommon, and in part that reflects the problems public defenders face. But the legal system is supposed to identify those errors and sometimes it doesn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Bozuit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/edb3f5/32.png) [@Bozuit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bozuit)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2014, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/after-tsarnaev-is-in-the-ground-should-america-reconsider-its-capital-punishment-policy/684052/145 "2014-03-21T18:34:33Z")
> [@Eonwe](#): > > While I love that quote, and am in theory against the death penalty, I am torn and undecided on capital punishment. I think that being willing to lock people up “for life” is not necessarily more moral than killing them. “Stay in a cell forever” is hardly a humane way to keep another human. Aside from the “got the wrong man” problem, what makes life imprisonment better than killing someone? > [@AHunter3](#): > > You think capital punishment is cruel but you’re OK with locking people in a cage for the rest of their lives? I’d be willing to bet quite a lot on which option you’d both take if convicted of murder and given a choice of a life sentence or death sentence. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2014, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/after-tsarnaev-is-in-the-ground-should-america-reconsider-its-capital-punishment-policy/684052/146 "2014-03-22T00:16:03Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Good. That means we don’t have to worry about people being executed when DNA would exonerate them. Sure. And Kevin Bacon wasn’t in _Footloose_. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2014, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/after-tsarnaev-is-in-the-ground-should-america-reconsider-its-capital-punishment-policy/684052/147 "2014-03-22T14:01:42Z")
I believe that death is horrible. That being said, I think that there are some crimes/people that demand the death penalty. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/after-tsarnaev-is-in-the-ground-should-america-reconsider-its-capital-punishment-policy/684052.md?page=7)