Death Row In Texas....

Classmates critique

My classmate, Alexander Stowell, writes in his blog,"I do not think that people need to be on death row for ten plus years. That is ridiculous. People should not have to sit around that long knowing that they are going to be put to death." I disagree with this statement. If people do such a horrific crime that they are going to be put to death, I believe that they need to sit in jail and think about what they have done. I mean, what an easy way out it would be if we were to shorten the appeals process and execute the guilty ones right away. The perpetrator of the crime would have very little time to ponder over his guilt. Also, the prosecution would not have the time to reconsider the case in the off-chance that they made a mistake, and an innocent person might be executed wrongly. I do agree, however, that something needs to be done to the system in order to prevent another case like the Willingham case. We need to use the Willingham case as a lesson and find a way to not let it happen again. Putting people to death more quickly runs the risk of putting innocent people to death, and I think this is too great a gamble to take. I do not know the answer, nor do I think I will ever get a choice in what the answer should be. All I know is that shortening the appeals process is not, in my opinion, the right answer. But, yes, there needs to be better checks and balances in the process.