Reply #102: I'm in favor of the death penalty, but your suggestion would only work...

[BreweryYardRat]

...in cases where the evidence (preferably video, ballistics, or multiple eyewitnesses who haven't communicated with each other) is OVERWHELMING. Von Brunn qualifies. Scott Roeder qualifies. That guy who raped and murdered a couple of kids and videotaped it a while back qualifies. I forget exactly what Abdul H. M. Muhammad did, so I can't say for certain that he qualifies, but if he was the DC sniper (which is where I think I've heard the name), he probably qualifies. I'd need to see the evidence to be sure.

Problem is, some people on death row have been convicted on shaky or minimal evidence. Expediting the process in a case like that could lead to an innocent person getting executed.

To make an expedited death penalty feasible, we'd need a law requiring a substantially higher amount of evidence, and I'm not sure how the legal process of that would work.

Don't get me wrong, I'm also in favor of swiftly getting rid of the real bastards, but we'd have to make sure innocent people wouldn't be getting the chop as well.