Dramnek_Ulk

Actually, they were going to be killed, but were released by the act of outside agencies, if the america justice system had had it's way, they would have been dead.
The fact that so many innocents were sentenced to death in so short a time raises fundamental questions about whether the justice system for death penalty is flawed.

Numerous procedural bars exist which prevent a defendant from appealing certain claims, placing responsibility on the often ineffective defense counsel to timely and precisely object to constitutional violations at trial and throughout the appeals process

While much of the vocal religious right supports capital punishment, most major religious groups support abolition of the death penalty. They include the American Baptist Churches in the U.S.A., Disciples of Christ, the Episcopal Church, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Mennonite Church, Orthodox Church in America, Presbyterian Church USA, Reformed Church in America, Uniterian Universalist Association, United Church of Christ, The United Methodist Church, and the U.S Catholic Conference.

April 23, 1998. Texas. Joseph Cannon. It took two attempts to complete the execution of Joseph Cannon. The first time, a vein in his arm collapsed and the needle popped out. Cannon had laid back and closed his eyes when he realized what had happened. "It's come undone" he told witnesses. Officials pulled a curtain to block witnesses from seeing what was happening and fifteen minutes later the second attempt began.

July 18, 1996. Indiana. Tommie Smith. Smith was not pronounced dead until an hour and 20 minutes after the execution team began to administer the lethal combination of intravenous drugs. Prison officials said the team could not find a vein in Smith's arm and had to insert an angio-catheter into his heart, a procedure that took 35 minutes. According to authorities, Smith remained conscious during that procedure

July 8, 1999. Florida. Allen Lee Davis. When hit with the 2,300 volts, blood poured from Davis' mouth. The blood poured onto the collar of his white shirt, and oozed onto his chest. By the time he was pronounced dead, the stain on Davis' chest had grown to the size of a dinner plate, and seeped through buckle holes on the leather chest strap holding him to the chair. Davis was the first inmate to be executed in Florida's new electric chair.

May 7, 1992. Texas. Justin Lee May. May had an unusually violent reaction to the lethal drugs. According to Robert Wernsman, a reporter for the Item (Huntsville), May "gasped, coughed and reared against his heavy leather restraints, coughing once again before his body froze. . ." Associated Press reporter Michael Graczyk wrote, " He went into coughing spasms, groaned and gasped, lifted his head from the death chamber gurney and would have arched his back if he had not been belted down. After he stopped breathing his eyes and mouth remained open."

May 4, 1990. Florida. Jesse Joseph Tafero. When the state replaced a "natural" sponge with a synthetic sponge in the headpiece of the execution apparatus, six-inch flames erupted, and three jolts of power were required to stop Tafero's breathing. Support for the state's faulty sponge theory was generated by sticking a part of it into a "common household toaster" and noting that it smoldered and caught fire. Extensive investigation by the office of the Capital Collateral Investigator in Tallahassee questioned this theory as other states have used synthetic sponges with no problems

Many states with the death penalty have higher murder rates than neighboring non-death penalty states. The murder rate in the U.S. is six times that of England, which does not have the death penalty, even though the rates of other crimes are largely similar. Some studies actually show a brutalization effect of the death penalty, including a slight rise in the murder rate immediately following an execution

March 25, 1997. Florida. Pedro Medina. With the first jolt of electricity, blue and orange flames sparked from the mask covering Medina's face. Flames up to a foot long shot out from the right side of Medina's head for 6 - 10 seconds. The execution chamber clouded with smoke, and the smell of burnt flesh filled the witness room

The Baldus study, recognized by the Supreme Court in McCleskey v. Kemp (1987), looking at Georgia murder cases in the 1970's, found that the death penalty was assessed in 22% of cases involving black defendants and white victims, 8% of cases involving white defendants and white victims, 1% of cases involving black defendants and black victims, and 3% of cases involving white defendants and black victims. Nevertheless, the Court concluded that racial disparities in sentencing "are an inevitable part of our criminal justice system."