In a message dated 4/11/00 9:00:06 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:

> Issodos also asked whether anybody had been wrongly executed in the
>  United States.  I am not sure whether he intended that to include lynch
>  mobs or police killings of Diallo and untold others,

    My question, more a challenge really, was in response to the issue of the
use of the death penalty by the state.  I was even more precise in that I
referred specifically to the period following the reinstitution of the death
penalty and focused on whether there is any proof that an innocent has been
executed.  In fact the question was really rhetorical because there is no
evidence that an innocent has been executed. Thus as an argument, it serves
those who favor the death penalty, because they can say that the fact that X
number of persons were eventually taken off of death row, instead of being
executed, shows that safe guards are in place.  And if (probably when) a case
is discovered, the response will be, "we have a good system, but we need to
enhance the care taken in avoiding even one innocent death."  So, as an
argument, it is meaningless.
Yours,
Issodhos