Capital Punishment

7 Pages 1650 Words

to death are, indeed, innocent. “Since 1973, 87 prisoners have been released from death row after new evidence suggested they were innocent” (Economist 2). More recently, George W. Bush, Governor of Texas, decided to stay the execution of Ricky McGinn, pending DNA tests. Another Republican governor, George Ryan of Illinois, has announced a moratorium pending an investigation of the judicial system. (Economist 1) Governor Ryan found that his state might have executed some innocent people.
There is some evidence that the attitudes of some persons favoring (or opposing) the death penalty are fairly deeply embedded in their values, convictions, and personality structure. However, most people are highly uncertain about capital punishment. A 1986 survey of over 900 Georgians, three-fourths of whom favored the death penalty, revealed that 52% of the respondents would favor abolishing capital punishment if offenders could be sentenced to life imprisonment with no possibility of parole for 85 years, combined with a restitu...