No Undo Button....

As I have written about before, here and here. I am not an advocate of the death penalty in my home nation of the USA. The reason being is that the system for trying and convicting people has proven fallible. This case illustrates my point from Clayton Cramer's blog...

HOUSTON -- A decade after Ruben Cantu was executed for capital murder, the only witness to the crime is recanting and his co-defendant says Cantu, then 17, was not even with him that night.

The victim was shot nine times with a rifle during an attempted robbery before the gunman shot the only witness.

That witness, Juan Moreno, told the Houston Chronicle for its Sunday editions that Cantu was not the killer. Moreno said he identified him at the 1985 trial because he felt pressured and feared authorities.

Oops. He didn;t do it? But he has executed 10 years ago and isn't guilty? Well, we can't give his life back can we?

I am just not convinced that social retribution in capital punishment cases deters the crimes nor does it prove economical. So why do we continue to pursue this option?

And then there is China, where more people are executed every year than the rest of the world combined. And despite the use of execution for punishment of crimes involving corruption and stealing of state funds, Chinese officials continue to rape the country of its wealth.