We are not all knowing.
We are not all seeing.
We are not all wise.
We are certainly not all compassionate.
We CANNOT KNOW FOR SURE if anyone committed any crime, even if we think we saw it ourselves. We are NOT God. Our perceptions are imperfect. Our system is imperfect. Our laws are imperfect. Our agents of the law are imperfect.
Prosecutors are not God.
Judges are not God.
Cops are not God.
"The evidence" is not God.
Jury members are not God.
We CANNOT KNOW WITH 100% ACCURACY if anyone committed any crime. That is WHY we have the concept in law of "beyond all reasonable doubt." The slightest reasonable doubt, and we are not supposed to convict. But, clearly...CLEARLY...human beings, as individuals or collectively, have IMPERFECT REASON. Emotion, prejudice, discomfort, fatigue, worry, stress all CLOUD our reason. This is bad enough when the question is life in prison or some lesser but draconian sentence. For state murder, it is outrageously WRONG.
How can we be so arrogant as to demand that someone be murdered "by the state" (actually, by other human beings, not us) on the basis of our notoriously imperfect reason and our notoriously imperfect prosecutors, judges, cops, "evidence" and jury members?
When are we going to get this through our heads, that we are NOT God?
It is REASONABLE to protect the innocent and "society" from persons whom we believe to be hopelessly violent, or serious criminals of some other kind. For that, we have the "preponderance of the evidence" and our gravely imperfect jail system (which often itself inflicts violence, injustice, brutality, slavery and other inhuman conditions on the innocent and guilty alike--not to mention extremely bad food, crowding, lack of rehab, etc.). It is, at least, a REASONABLE requirement of society that some people be removed from our midst, whether for punishment, rehab or psychiatric care, if "the preponderance of the evidence" "beyond a reasonable doubt" indicates that they have done serious harm and/or we cannot rely upon them to be lawful and peaceful. The system of justice that enacts that reasonable requirement of society is obviously in need of serious reform but it is not inherently wrong, unjust and unfair. It is simply--and always--IMPERFECT.
But it is NOT reasonable to murder people on the basis of this highly imperfect process of accusation and conviction. State murder stops all justice. It is not just flawed; it is inherently wrong.
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