bent

one thing i don't understand about these executions: why the family of the victim and also the law enforcement people are entirely immune from evidence of innocence: free of doubt even when serious doubts have been raised. how can you just want someone, anyone to pay? surely to take any satisfaction in justice/vengeance, it is all-important that you actually get the right person. i can understand wanting the person who killed your son or whatever to die. and i think that some people deserve death. what i can't understand is manifesting along with these attitudes an indifference to the evidence: if troy davis was innocent, well then the person who killed you son is still running around. why work on producing in yourself total certainty in the face of good reasons not to be certain? i guess there must be some psychological mechanism involved because you see this all the time: whomever is the suspect, however flimsy the evidence, the family of the victim just wants a conviction/maximal punishment.