Re: Is justice delayed 24 years justice?

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Charles Louis Steinhardt" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, December 13, 2005 8:02 PM
Subject: Re: [CAT23-Achat] Is justice delayed 24 years justice?


>
>
> On Tue, 13 Dec 2005, Peter J Richardson wrote:
>
>> Irrespective of one's views on capital punishment, is it reasonable to keep a man in legal limbo for 24 
>> years?
>> In the old Australian penal colonies, there used to be a rule that if a man could escape and stay at large 
>> for a
>> year and a day that he became a free man.
>>
>> Does anybody think there should be a statute of limitations on these death row cases?
>>
>
> While personally I am opposed to the death penalty, I should mention a few
> facts here:
>
> - It is the choice of the person about to be executed to delay the
> process.

Really? I've seen cases reported here in the past of inmates who are resigned to their fate, but whose relatives 
or "supporters" choose to continue the legal battle.


> Essentially, they are allowed a large number of appeals in order
> to give them every possible chance to prove their innocence, prove that
> there was a judicial mistake made, that rules were not followed, etc.  In
> this case every single avenue possible was pursued, every single delaying
> tactic available to the defense was used, and that is why it took 24
> years.  Had the defense wanted to get it over with, it would not have
> taken nearly as long

How long does it take for these appeals once filed to be heard? Is there any reason why they cannot be heard 
concurrently? And if there are so many grounds for appeal that it takes 24 years to hear them all, do not the 
very multitudes of these bases for appeal when added together form a "reasonable doubt"? I'm thinking that if 
the prosecution cannot produce a sufficiently cast iron case for it to be wrapped up within, say, five years, 
perhaps the death penalty should automatically be commuted.

Regards
Peter 



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