# The Death Penalty, Schwarzenegger and Court TV movie

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-death-penalty-schwarzenegger-and-court-tv-movie/286196>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [January 23, 2005, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-death-penalty-schwarzenegger-and-court-tv-movie/286196 "2005-01-23T04:08:03Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![tflon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecd19e/32.png) [@tflon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tflon)\
**Post date:** [January 23, 2005, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-death-penalty-schwarzenegger-and-court-tv-movie/286196/1 "2005-01-23T04:08:03Z")

</div>

On January 19th of this year Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger allowed the  
first death sentence to be served in three years, and the first under  
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. That is almost copied straight from a  
news site (because honestly if I hadn’t, there’s no way I’d have been  
able to spell Arnie’s name!)

Anyway, I recently caught an ad for a movie on Court TV called The  
Exonerated. It’s based on true stories of several people who spent  
years on death row for crimes they didn’t commit. The original version  
was a play which inspired my interest in the subject of the death  
penalty. I specifically remember one guy who spent something like 20  
years on death row before finally being cleared.

Now before someone jumps all over me: I’m not saying that the guy who  
was just executed in California was innocent. But does anyone think  
it’s acceptable that even one innocent person could be executed? I  
think it’s about time this country joins the rest of the civilized  
world and adopts a more humane approach. For those of you still on the  
fence on this issue, I’d check out this movie, because if it’s anything  
like the play the personal stories will astound you. I think it airs on  
January 27 (but check [courttv.com](http://courttv.com) just in case I’m wrong). And if you  
have thoughts on this issue, I’d like to hear them.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\
**Post date:** [January 23, 2005, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-death-penalty-schwarzenegger-and-court-tv-movie/286196/2 "2005-01-23T04:17:45Z")

</div>

> [@tflon](#):
>
> Now before someone jumps all over me: I’m not saying that the guy who was just executed in California was innocent. But does anyone think  
> it’s acceptable that even one innocent person could be executed?

Short answer from me - NO. Hell No. It’s one of my biggest complaints against the death penalty. It’s final and irreversable, it can’t be undone. If you imprison someone and learn he was innocent, you can turn him loose and at least try to make reparations. If you kill him, that’s it. No going back, no shouting “do over”.