States Divided On Life-And-Death Questions
More States Are Reconsidering Capital Punishment -- And Reaching Very Different Conclusions
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Play CBS Video Video 129 Death Row Inmates Freed The United States has released 129 death row inmates due to wrongful conviction, leading many to question the use of the death penalty. Mark Strassmann reports.
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Kirk Bloodsworth (CBS)
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Interactive Capital Punishment Learn about the death penalty in the United States. Check out statistics, history, famous trials and more.
CBS News correspondent Mark Strassmann reports 14 other executions are scheduled in the next six months across America.
And they all unnerve Kirk Bloodsworth, who in 1984 was charged with the unthinkable: the rape and murder of 9-year-old Dawn Hamilton.
Found guilty, Bloodworth was innocent. He says now, "It was pending doom. I knew this thing was going south in a hurry and I was on a freight train to death row."
He lost eight years of his life, as well as his mother, who was his biggest believer.
"I had to go to see her body in handcuffs and shackles for five minutes .. and go back to prison," he recalls through tears.
In 1993, Bloodsworth was freed, becoming the first death row inmate exonerated by DNA.
Wrongful convictions such as his are one reason why lawmakers in five states are seriously debating repealing capital punishment.
But five other states have moved in a very different direction -- passing laws that expanded death row to execute people convicted of a crime other than murder.
In particular, child rapists are being sought for inclusion. Louisiana has two of them on death row, both of whose victims lived.
The Supreme Court will soon decide whether these states can execute them.
Says Texas Solicitor General Ted Cruz, "For the very worst child rapists, juries should have before them as a permissible option the most serious punishment."
But no one wants to get it wrong.
Just last Friday, North Carolina freed Levon Jones, America's 129th exonerated death row inmate.
"Now I am not a mathematician, says Kirk Bloodsworth, "But that would give me pause."
The system that once had his number faces new life-and-death questions.
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Michelle Obama tells how her role as the First Lady has changed her perspective.





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See all 22 CommentsPosted by pfd572 at 08:47 AM : May 07, 2008
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and how about guilty murderers that got away due to political correctness..manipulation of evidence and loopholes in our justice system...I AM SURE WE HAVE A LOT MORE OF THOSE THAN THE ''INNOCENT'' ONES..
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you dont know the difference between a cold=blooded murderer and a fetus??? and its hard of for you which is to save and which is to exterminate????
Posted by pfd572 at 08:44 AM : May 07, 2008
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saving murderers and killing fetus is a big LIBERAL AGENDA..and how come you are so defensive about that word ''liberal''?
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the difference is the other committed a crime against another person and society (which they continue to victimize financially not unless you dont want to join the hypocrite crowd and adopt one or PAY FOR THIER KEEP) and the other is a defenseless individual who has not committed one sin nor crime against anybody
Call me liberal, or whatever name fits, but I vote for a positive use of "life" rather than exterminating it. I highly question all the "religious" teachings that are flooding our society today........seems like the middle ages all over again.
START WAR CRIMES TRIALS NOW!
AMERICA STAND UP OR SHUT UP!
Posted by bluestardad at 08:06 AM : May 06, 2008
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in nazi germany..MORONS LIKE YOU were executed for speaking against hitler
in this country now...MORONS LIKE YOU are given the right to talk your sh*t NO MATTER HOW OUTRAGIOUS IT IS..
Posted by rudy654 at 02:44 AM : May 06, 2008
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its better than your argument..WHICH IS NONE...
But then, look up Joseph E Duncan III and his lifelong escapades. Execution, in lieu of retroactive abortion when he was in his teens, would have saved numerous children from trauma and several lives.
Apparently our justice system cannot cope with a sociopath and he is just one of multitudes.
Posted by pfd572 at 02:23 AM : May 06, 2008
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If you think that the death penalty is uncivilized then what would you call abortion? 50 million abortions and counting. Just how civilized is that?
START WAR CRIMES TRIALS NOW!
AMERICA STAND UP OR SHUT UP!
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Posted by obamawhama at 08:21 PM
Your arguments are so stupid.
If you execute someone who''s innocent: you are a murderer, and should be (by law) put to death.
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