[Siegmund]

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To all:

How would the degree of punishment affect you, eg (prison, death)? I would think the reversibility of a wrong conviction should matter too.

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makes a huge difference. Reversability of a wrong aquital would matter as well.


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Well, yeah.

Welcome to real life: the damage done by either error is completely irreparable. It's illegal to try someone for the same crime twice, and impossible to award someone extra years of life to make up for the ones he missed out on. You can take a wrong conviction off someone's record, and you can hand him some money - but this does absolutely nothing for repairing his reputation or undoing what he went through during the trial and time imprisoned.

Yes, you waste more years of someone's life by executing him than you do by locking him up awhile and then freeing him -- but that's a difference of amount of damage done, not a matter of one being reversible.