Here lies the motto

Kyklops recently shared a great article from the New Yorker – Trial by Fire. It’s a very well-written and gripping account of Cameron Todd Willingham’s time on death row.

I don’t like the idea of killing the guilty as revenge for what’s been done. An eye for an eye – murder for murder – is a disgusting reaction in and of itself, but the fact that an innocent person can easily find themselves being murdered for a crime they didn’t commit should convince anyone that it’s a ridiculous form of punishment.

I found this to be quite interesting also:

He also considered it wasteful: because of the expense of litigation and the appeals process, it costs, on average, $2.3 million to execute a prisoner in Texas—about three times the cost of incarcerating someone for forty years.

It’s a fantastic, if depressing, read. It’s quite long, but certainly worth it.