(August 6, 2022 at 8:30 pm)bennyboy Wrote: There are lots of mistakes that we can't undo, and many of them involve death. Doctors fuck up on a shockingly regular basis, and people die-- but they say, "I did the best with the information I had," and for the most part we take that at face value. My own friend was turned away from a hospital WHILE HAVING a heart attack, and he exists no more. I see fuckers driving with their phones out all the time-- if one of them kills my kid crossing the street, they'll get maybe aggravated manslaughter, do a few years, and Bob's-yer-uncle. "I'm sorry," they'll say, "I made a mistake."
Comparisons to doctors are vapid, because doctors carry malpractice insurance and can be stripped of their licenses if found culpably negligent. Not so with the criminal justice system, for the most part, though you'll see the odd cop fired on occasion. I'm sorry about your friend. Hopefully his family sued? I had a girlfriend whose father was killed by the inept treatment he received in a hospital. They sued and got a settlement, and a tiny measure of justice. Do you see that happening in wrongful executions? No.
As for drivers having accidents, of course that happens. We prosecute them when the negligence rises to a criminal level. Indeed, with DUI, some states prosecute that as murder. Do you see that happening in wrongful executions? No.
(August 6, 2022 at 8:30 pm)bennyboy Wrote: We allow behaviors all the time that jeopardize the lives of good, honest, innocent civilians, many THOUSANDS of them per year. But if the judicial system ever makes a mistake involving a life, suddenly it's the end of all that's good and decent in America. What a strange asymmetry in standards that is.
It might have something to do with the fact that this is the power of the government at work, and the fact that we are guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment equal protection under the law. How much stock would you put in that system if it were you being wrongly put to death?
Innocent civilians die say, in airplane crashes too often. But you can bet that the pilot of that plane isn't railroading them to their fates, but rather, trying to avoid it himself.
Another flawed line of reasoning, imo.
(August 6, 2022 at 8:30 pm)bennyboy Wrote: And consider the OP-- we're talking about war criminals here. At best, you'll have killed an "innocent" combatant from an enemy nation. That's bad, but not as bad as bombing a wedding full of women and children, proudly proclaiming in breaking news that "We gottem!" So how much, REALLY, do we value life in this country anyway? Not too much, apparently, unless it's a convicted violent felon crying that HIS rights are being ignored.
I'm not sure why you think I'm defending the wrongs America has done in wars, or find them acceptable, but I'm not and I don't, so I see no need to give this portion of your answer any further reply. It does seem to me not giving a fig about justice here being meted out correctly would be pretty detrimental to a justice system. Let's hope none of us are on the receiving end of a wrongful conviction ... but I bet you'd change your outlook mos' rickey-tick if you were in that position.
