Nevada death penalty opponents have the high ground
Michael Kreps’ recent letter to the editor in favor of not only keeping the death penalty but speeding up the appeals process to allow for more rapid executions misses the point.
Mr. Kreps states, “I do not believe that our justice system is so crooked that it meets out the death penalty based on the color of your skin.” With all due respect to his anecdotal incidents, statistics prove him wrong. The whole system doesn’t have to be crooked. All it takes is just one overly ambitious prosecutor worried about re-election, a bad cop with a grudge planting evidence, a fellow inmate with a desire for a reduced sentence or biased jurors.
According to Amnesty International, 151 people have been released from death rows throughput the country due to evidence of wrongful convictions. That’s 151 innocent people who would have been executed. Speeding up the process is not the answer. Eliminating the death penalty like most other civilized countries is.
