Brett Bittner at United Liberty posted an interesting article about the death penalty and stricter sentencing for first-offense felonies. Says Brett:
…there are far too many instances of police and prosecutorial misconduct in investigations and trials where new evidence, recanted testimony, or the introduction of DNA evidence exonerates an innocent man or women…
Are there too many instances of misconduct by the prosecution? I suppose the answer would have to be “yes,” given that one instance would be far too many.
Brett makes a good point, and it’s worth considering. My primary concern in his argument is the possibility of a more lenient sentence being handed down when a more severe punishment is legitimately warranted. Still, it would be better to err on the lenient side when you could be sentencing an innocent person.
Brett’s full post is here and is worth your time to read.