Ron White: Most states are trying to rid the death penalty. My State is adding a Express Lane.

Im with Ron. and you guys too. I feel the same way. Why waste the time and effort.

Gotta love Texas!!! We aren't afraid to put the full force of the law into use. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

So how to you handle an innocent accused and convicted of a heinous crime? I remember a story a few weeks back about a guy who served 20 something years for the brutal slaying of a girl only to be released because the DNA evidence pointed to her boyfriend, not him. In a death penalty state he would have been long dead. I'm all for killing those truly guilty of heinous crimes, but what of the innocents? Our justice system is far from perfect. For that reason I don't support the death penalty. In my opinion they should be put to hard labor instead. Make them do something productive for the rest of their lives. The worse the crime or more repeats, the harder the labor.

DNA testing is a pretty new thing for forensics.

This guy turned himself in and admitted to the crime. Even so they will still do a full investigation to make sure he is not covering for anyone.

What would that have to do with it?
And actually, as far as forensics goes, there are many, many newer things than DNA being used now. DNA has been used for over 20 years now.
DNA testing should be MANDATORY for any and all major crimes, both current, and older. What would be the problem with actually proving the facts? Some DA offices are reluctant to use DNA. These are idiots, only afraid that they are going after the wrong person. And they are only interested in their public appearance. Some don't want DNA used because it would show that they convicted the WRONG person. They would rather an innocent person sit in jail, that admit they made a mistake.
DNA testing should be mandatory. PERIOD.

DNA is not always usefull, there are millions of reasons your DNA is everywhere. Your house, car, hotels, garbage just about anywhere you have ever been. So you have DA's who can pick and choose their evidence. Look at Nifong, he had DNA evidence that it wasn't the Duke team but didn't stop him one bit. He got one day in jail <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" />

A back country road, pliers, blow torch, razors, and an ant hill.

Carlos

Don't forget the repetitious playing of commercials.

Also the way DNA testing is done is a joke. The chance of false positives is way to great. Two siblings (not twins) are very likely to have the same fingerprint, and differences between close relatives are sometimes well within experimental error. Electrophoresis can only sort samples of DNA based on molecular weight, that is it. Given a few weeks and some molecular weight sorted DNA samples I can make up a match for any sample or modify a sample to match another sample. How do I know this, dad used electrophoresis for typing similar microorganisms in the lab. As such he needed to know it's limits and weaknesses.