Capital Punishment For Murderers

[Dot_the_Bot]

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From society's perspective, what is the effective difference between a guilty cold-blooded murder being executed and being permanently removed from society into prison?

I think the only relevant question here is how much chance there is that they are actually innocent. Executing someone convicted with multiple eyewitnesses, video evidence, or DNA evidence is less of an issue than someone convicted with less than conclusive evidence. Unfortunately, I don't know how to determine the point statistically where the line can be drawn. I would, though, assume that someone convicted and then "re-convicted" for lack of a better word after 3 or 4 appeals is very likely to be conclusively guilty.

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Actually, that's not the way appeals work. It is a common misconception that an appeal is a retrial- it is not. When a convicted defendent appeals, they are appealing to a higher court to find fault with the court case, and court in which they were tried, not re-arguing their innocence.

This is why a completely guilty person can win an appeal on a technicality. It is more like the court has to found be guilty of some wrongdoing, rather than an opportunity for the convict to have another descision on their guilt or innocence.

Therefore, if the court did not err in any way- it is quite possible for an innocent person convicted by a jury of their peers to repeatedly lose appeals.