Well, when I've said in the past that I'm opposed to the death penalty, it's always been qualified by "because you can't know 100% sure that the person is guilty".
What percent of those in prison do you REALLY think are innocent. Seriously. Do you really think more than 5% are innocent? I doubt it's even THAT high of a percent of prisoners. I know someone who was in jail for 15 years on manslaughter. Even he says straight up that the great majority of those in prison are right where they belong and he only ever met 1 person in all his years there that was actually wrongly accused.
One is too many
Correct Earl! For the sake of that one, and for our own sakes, we must end the death penalty and reform prisons so that rape is not the norm there. We should also make living conditions there better overal, with more space, more amusements, and so forth.
We need to stop assuming our own personal preferences are some form of objective 'right' and 'wrong'. When we incarcerate someone we are doing it solely because it suits
us, and therefore we should be mighty careful about when we resort to it, and mighty apologetic and considerate to the poor sacrificial lamb to society's rules. Do it, yes, but don't lord it over the person, or tell him he is 'bad', whatever that means.
