In a message dated 1/7/00 1:01:52 AM EST, [log in to unmask] writes:

> Now, though, it is no longer enough to ask whether a certain prisoner
>  deserves to die. We must also ask whether the system that kills the
>  guilty will also kill someone innocent. Once, capital punishment
>  proponents could argue that the system was foolproof. No more. The
>  criminal-justice system is flawed, occasionally corrupt, sometimes
>  downright bizarre: O. J. walks. Innocent people sometimes get death
>  sentences.

     Actually, it seems that the only thing Cohen has 'proven' is that the
system works.  He provides example after example of probable innocent persons
being released while showing no evidence of an innocent person being executed
since the reestablishment of the death penalty.  Does anyone know of any
instance since the reestablishment of the death penalty in which the person
executed was later shown to not be a murderer?
Yours,
Issodhos