Reply #7: One of the strongest talking points for death penalty advocates

[gratuitous]

Death penalty advocates like to point out that there's never been an exoneration of an executed person, and they use that as a strong talking point in favor of keeping the death penalty machinery from being questioned or tinkered with, and maintaining that the system works just fine as it is. Inmates exonerated before their execution are hailed by proponents as proof of how well the system works, as if everyone exonerated constitutes the entire universe of everyone who should have been exonerated.

Showing that someone was executed for a crime he didn't commit, however, bolsters the argument that our current system for administering the death penalty has some serious flaws, and needs to be fixed or done away with entirely. After all, no one that I know of, death penalty proponent or opponent, is in favor of executing the innocent.

Obviously, posthumous exoneration doesn’t accomplish anything for the person executed, but it knocks out a very strong pillar of the proponents’ argument, and along with the parallel track of the efforts by folks working on the Innocence Project, brings us closer to a sane discussion and examination of the only justice system in the developed world that still practices capital punishment.