On the Verdict: Revenge is a very poor substitute for justice. Discuss...

[nadinbrzezinski]

120. I think the country will have to grapple with it

and it will go away ultimately, perhaps even before Tsarnaev is executed. His case is unique, in the sense that none contested the acts. But we have an increasing number of cases where evidence was suppressed, or even the wrong person was found guilty of a crime they did not commit. People who have spent decades waiting to be executed. And then there is a strong structural bias and structural racism in the system. This kid does not have the bad defense argument though.


In his case, I am opposed to it, since quite frankly making martyrs is not my idea of fun. We did the same thing with Timothy McVeigh. There are people who adore McVeigh and think that he tried hard to start the revolution. Those people, quite frankly scare me, but they exist.

It has not one whit with religion either. But we have been covering courts, and the way that they work, I am not altogether convinced the justice system works at all, to actually find the guilty for a simple robbery, let alone a capital case. (There are many aspects of this case that are unique)

And of course then you have places like California, where the appeals are so long, (the supreme court did find this by the way, state supreme court) that the death penalty is a form of torture and works as life in prison anyway. Yes, your chances of dying by the state are really, really, really low.

If you are not somewhat conflicted then you are not truly thinking about it fully.

On a far larger view of the world, we need a full discussion on our criminal system, and how it works, or does not work... and how it has become a house of horrors. We as a nation have ignored this for so long that sooner or later we will have to face it. Trust me, most people do not want to. That mirror is a monster staring back at us.