Texas has executed death row inmate Christopher Wilkins, the nation's first execution in 2017
More than 11 years after killing two men, Wilkins, 48, was put to death by lethal injection Wednesday, the Associated Press reported. Wilkins' attorneys asked the U.S. Supreme Court to halt the execution, saying he had poor legal help at trial and during other appeals. Seven executions were carried out last year in Texas, the fewest since 1996. Ref. USAToday.
The way I look at this is if you kill a person you should be willing to die at the hands of the state. The moment you take a persons life for no reason then you have given up your right to continue to live. I know this is not a prefect solution but maybe if we had more death penalties then we would help reduce the number of murders in the world.
My only issue is that we must be certain that the person did it. DNA testing must be done. There have been cases of inmates being wrongfully convicted and then being released later. That option is not available if the person has already been executed.
Yes DNA evidence to make sure we have the correct person. Just like if DNA evidence states that a person is a sexual predator then they should be chemically castrated. I am not one to be nice to those who are guilty. But we do need to make sure that we have it correct.
Yes, we have to make as sure as humanly possible that we have the right person. Our justice system, derived from English law, was devised with the assumption that it is better to let ten guilty people go free than to convict one innocent person. Also, the SCOTUS once decided