Illinois man freed after 20 years in prison gets $20 million

[protectionist]

The Death Penalty is not a deterrent, nor has it ever been.

Its role has been to take Revenge out of the hands of the family and friends of the victim, and to put it into the more methodical and dispassionate hands of the State.

Revenge... for the victim, primarily, and, secondarily, for the victim's family and friends, and even, in a tertiary sort of way, for the community at large, for thus damaging and weakening and disturbing the community.

Revenge.

It has been thus, since the earliest times, when the payment of 'wergeld' (blood money) and eye-for-an-eye personal violence were taken out of the hands of an aggrieved peasantry and put into the hands of the local nobility of a post-tribal, feudal, pre-medieval Europe.

In that respect, nothing has really changed since those earlier times.

Except that nowadays, the State exacts that Revenge through a long, drawn-out legalistic Danse Macabre - tightly controlled and monitored, to ensure the fewest possible mistakes.

Usually, the system works.

Sometimes, it doesn't.

But let's not forget how State-sponsored Capital Punishment got its start, and why it has been sustained for so many long centuries - fulfilling, as it does, a basic human need.

Revenge.

And it is a component we have to keep, because just because one person may decide they don't need the ultimate punishment to satisfy their desire for justice/revenge (whatever you want to call it) some people still do. And if those people decide the State cannot give it to them, they may decide to do it themselves.

It is what the convicted killers who are spared the death penalty, may decide, that we need to be thinking about.

 

[ClosedCaption]

Lets all stare in wonder at the details:

Rivera was tried three times in the case. Attorneys for Rivera said that prosecutors claimed that Rivera had worn a pair of shoes stained with the girls' blood.

But it was later revealed that the shoes were not available for purchase at the time of the murder, and attorneys for Rivera said police had tampered with them.

It also was discovered that a knife found near the steps of the crime was destroyed by Waukegan police, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Rivera was coerced into a false confession, and his conviction was not an accident or a mistake, attorney Locke Bowman told a news conference.

 

[Kondor3]

Lets all stare in wonder at the details:

Rivera was tried three times in the case. Attorneys for Rivera said that prosecutors claimed that Rivera had worn a pair of shoes stained with the girls' blood.

But it was later revealed that the shoes were not available for purchase at the time of the murder, and attorneys for Rivera said police had tampered with them.

It also was discovered that a knife found near the steps of the crime was destroyed by Waukegan police, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Rivera was coerced into a false confession, and his conviction was not an accident or a mistake, attorney Locke Bowman told a news conference.

Epic Fail for the Illinois justice system.

 

[ClosedCaption]

Lets all stare in wonder at the details:

Rivera was tried three times in the case. Attorneys for Rivera said that prosecutors claimed that Rivera had worn a pair of shoes stained with the girls' blood.

But it was later revealed that the shoes were not available for purchase at the time of the murder, and attorneys for Rivera said police had tampered with them.

It also was discovered that a knife found near the steps of the crime was destroyed by Waukegan police, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Rivera was coerced into a false confession, and his conviction was not an accident or a mistake, attorney Locke Bowman told a news conference.

Epic Fail for the Illinois justice system.

Win or fail...just depends on who you ask

 

[Kondor3]

Lets all stare in wonder at the details:

Rivera was tried three times in the case. Attorneys for Rivera said that prosecutors claimed that Rivera had worn a pair of shoes stained with the girls' blood.

But it was later revealed that the shoes were not available for purchase at the time of the murder, and attorneys for Rivera said police had tampered with them.

It also was discovered that a knife found near the steps of the crime was destroyed by Waukegan police, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Rivera was coerced into a false confession, and his conviction was not an accident or a mistake, attorney Locke Bowman told a news conference.

Epic Fail for the Illinois justice system.

Win or fail...just depends on who you ask

No, if the guy was framed by the cops and the states attorney's office, they should do the jail time that they caused him to do.

For shame.

 

[Jarlaxle]

Lets all stare in wonder at the details:

Rivera was tried three times in the case. Attorneys for Rivera said that prosecutors claimed that Rivera had worn a pair of shoes stained with the girls' blood.

But it was later revealed that the shoes were not available for purchase at the time of the murder, and attorneys for Rivera said police had tampered with them.

It also was discovered that a knife found near the steps of the crime was destroyed by Waukegan police, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Rivera was coerced into a false confession, and his conviction was not an accident or a mistake, attorney Locke Bowman told a news conference.

Epic Fail for the Illinois justice system.

Win or fail...just depends on who you ask

No, if the guy was framed by the cops and the states attorney's office, they should do the jail time that they caused him to do.

For shame.

Yet more evidence that bent cops and prosecutors need to DIE.