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A Wise Delay Governor Ryan’s decision to suspend the death penalty is already
starting to have a valuable impact on the rest of nation. Other states are
starting to aid in Governor Ryan’s quest to improve death penalty systems. Last
week, a representative from the state of Wisconsin, requested that President
Clinton put a hold on executions until the federal death penalty system can be
reviewed. Clinton is an avid supporter of the death penalty and only promised to
consider it. Since 1973, eighty-five people have been released from death row in
the federal system because of mis-verdicts.
Twenty-one federal inmates still
remain on death row. Juan Raoul Garza is one of these death row inmates. Despite
the governments past mistakes, he is scheduled to be executed this year.
President Clinton should think long and hard before reopening the federal death
chamber. Because the federal justice system dose not do its job correctly, many
innocent people may have or will die on death row.
According to the article, A
Federal Execution Moratorium-misconduct, unbelievably erroneous evidence and
false testimony by jailhouse informants can and has lead to mistaken verdicts.
Rolando Cruz is an excellent example of a terrible mistake made by the federal
government. He was convicted of the 1983 rape and murder of ten-year-old Jeanine Nicarico, and put on death row. His freedom was suspended to him even after
Brian Dugan came forth to admit his sole involvment in the murder.
Cruz remained
on death row while prosecutors try to prove Dugan was lying! DNA testing proved
that Cruz was not the source of semen samples taken from Nicarico's body;
however, Dugan was a perfect match. Cruz remained on death row. November 4,
1995, 12 years after his original arrest, Cruz was released. Not only did Cruz
loose twelve prime years of his life; He almost lost his whole life. Judge
Ronald Mehling said he released Cruz because the initial murder investigation
was “sloppy, very sloppy”, and the government's case against Cruz was riddled
with lies and mistakes.
It is suggested in the article that a wise approach to
this problem would be to appoint a commission to study the federal death penalty
system. I am in agreement that Clinton must suspend the death penalty until the
bugs in this system are totally irradiated. More states need to come forth to
force Clinton to see that he needs to do more than think about suspending the
death penalty. Taking innocent lives is wrong. no matter who or how powerful you
are!
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