5/6/2023
To: LETTERS: exclusive to The Oklahoman
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RE; Guest Column: "Are you willing to be a sacrifice so that death penalty can continue?" Adam Luck, former chairman, Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board, Oklahoman, May 4, 2023,
Subject: Death Penalty: The Innocence Fallacies of Adam Luck
From: Dudley Sharp, independent researcher, death penalty expert, former opponent, 832-439-2113, CV at bottom
Preface
Without error, fraud, astounding willful ignorance and/or mis-direction, the save the murderer folks would be out of all their talking points.
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1) Luck: "Since 1976, we’ve executed 1,550 people and realized 190 people on death row were innocent and were then exonerated. Our failure rate at this point is 12% or about 1 in 10."
Sharp: Standard, every day, anti-death penalty frauds.
It has been well known, at least since 1998, that the error/fraud rate in the anti-death penalty claims of "innocent"/"exonerated", from death row, is in a range of 71-83% (1), wherein they redefined both "innocent"/"exonerated" as if they had redefined lie as truth, then stuck a bunch of cases into those perverted definitions. This is not in dispute (1).
After 50 years (1973-2023) of the most intense investigations, we have found that the guilt accuracy rate on death row is 99.6%, with the 0.4% proven innocent "all released "(1). 0.4% is 1 in 250 (not 1 in 10), as we would expect with the only sanction that has super due process (2).
2) Luck: "we only support the death penalty if we can guarantee we get it right every time. Otherwise, we must make our peace with the number of innocent people we are OK with killing to maintain the institution of the death penalty."
Sharp: It is, very unlikely, that Luck is concerned with the innocent, as detailed:
a) We start with Luck's lack of caring about reality and the proof of innocence, above, then we have these:
b) The death penalty/executions protect the innocent, in three ways, better than does life without parole (LWOP): Enhanced due process (2,3,5) and enhanced incapacitation (2,3, 5), both of which are unchallenged and well known by anti-death penalty folks, then enhanced deterrence, which is challenged, but prevails with fact checking and vetting (3,4,5).
c) Nobel Prize Laureate (Economics) Gary Becker: “the evidence of a variety of types — not simply the quantitative evidence — has been enough to convince me that capital punishment does deter and is worth using for the worst sorts of offenses.” (NY Times, 11/18/07)
"(Becker) is the most important social scientist in the past 50 years (NY Times, 5/5/14)
d) Did Luck ask for perfection, here - In the US, since 1973:
20,000 ADDITIONAL innocents have been murdered by those KNOWN murderers that we have allowed to murder, again - recidivist murderers;
500,000 ADDITIONAL innocents have been murdered by those KNOWN criminals that we have allowed to murder, again - recidivist criminals.
5000 die in criminal custody, per year, but we only executed 30/yr. Both by percentage and huge number differences, innocents are much more likely to die in prison, that we are likely to execute an innocent. Luck?
Luck should know all of that, based upon his prior position with Ok Pardon & Parole Board. Luck, should we ban, pre trial release, paroles, probations, no cash bails, early release, violent prisoner releases, etc.?
Looks like we didn't get it right 500,000 times . . . but, that is, only, for murderers. Rapes, other assaults and robberies are about 7 times greater than murders, or 3.5 million.
Luck how many innocents are you willing to sacrifice?
As Luck stated: "As the chair of the Pardon and Parole Board, I saw case by case, the flaws in this system.", inclusive of seeing that no innocents were executed, in the past 50 years.
Luck, how many innocents were murdered, raped, otherwise assaulted, and robbed, by recidivist criminals, in Oklahoma, since 1973? Is Luck, even, interested?
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Richard Glossip: Little Credibility with His Supporters
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5) Luck cares about saving guilty murderers on death row, no matter how many innocents will be harmed, as a result.
That is a very common anti-death penalty malady:
Well known anti-death penalty scholars "(Charles) Black and (Hugo Adam) Bedau said they would favor abolishing the death penalty even if they knew that doing so would increase the homicide rate by 1,000 percent." (3, 5), meaning an additional 9 milli0n innocents murdered (1973-2023), in exchange for saving the lives of 1500 capital murderers. Cruelty at an astounding level.
The anti-death penalty motto could be "We must save murderers lives, at all cost, no matter the number of innocents that will suffer."
Pro death penalty scholar Ernest van den Haag interviewed well known anti- death penalty activists, asking them, if it was proven that 100 innocent lives were spared per execution, via deterrence, would you still oppose the death penalty. All said yes (3, 5).
Based upon our nearly 1600 executions (1973-2023), those anti-death penalty folks would choose sparing the lives of 1600 guilty murderers, resulting in 160,000 innocent deaths from murder.
The anti -death penalty goal is to save guilty murderers, no matter the cost, including the cost, in huge numbers, of additional innocents murdered, as they admit.
Based upon our nearly 1600 executions (1973-2023), those anti-death penalty folks would choose sparing the lives of 1600 guilty murderers, resulting in 160,000 innocent deaths from murder.
The anti -death penalty goal is to save guilty murderers, no matter the cost, including the cost, in huge numbers, of additional innocents murdered, as they admit.
6) Are these the numbers and results that Luck is comfortable with? If not, maybe he will pick a number.
Apply intellectual integrity to one of the most important decisions we are making about one another: whether we live or die.
Are you OK with it being your neighbor, family member or your friend? Because we can’t pick our number and then say we’re OK with 500,000. To have any moral and ethical ground to stand on, we can’t have rules for where the innocent come from. Luck, are you OK with the 500,000? Will you be the sacrifice? If you say no, then indicate some sympathy for the innocent. Now, you must be honest about the exceptions to your beliefs and what those exceptions mean about how you view the value of life and whose life is valuable.
It is also true that we allowed 20,000 KNOWN murderers to murder, again.
Killing innocent people should not be an inherent part of our criminal justice procedures, but it has been for 500,000 innocents.
We cannot make the system perfect, so we have to pick the error rate we are comfortable with.
7) Rep. McDugle writes an op/ed about Richard Glossip's innocence, but, somehow, leaves out any evidence for Glossip's innocence.
Rep. McDugle is a Total Blank on Richard Glossip's "Actual Innocence" - Why?
In closing:
We can do much better. Luck should do much better. We'll see.
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600+ pro death penalty quotes from murder victim's families &
3300+ from some of the greatest thinkers in history
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FN
1) The Death Row "Exonerated"/"Innocent" Frauds
71-83% Error Rate in Death Row "Innocent" Claims,
Well Known Since 2000
2) Texas Death Penalty Procedures
3) The Death Penalty: Saving More Innocent Lives
http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-death-penalty-do-innocents-matter.html
4) Deterrence, Death Penalties & Executions
https://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2019/04/deterrence-death-penalties-executions.html
https://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2019/04/deterrence-death-penalties-executions.html
5) Full Rebuttal of Sir Richard Branson & His Death Penalty Comments
EXTRA
Sister Helen Prejean: Her Lies, Deceptions . . . and/or
Astounding Willful Ignorance? - A Compilation
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600+ pro death penalty quotes from murder victim's families &
3300+ from some of the greatest thinkers in history
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Victim Services
Victims' Voices
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Research, w/sources, w/fact checking/vetting & critical thinking, as required of anyone within a public policy debate and which rebut all anti-death penalty claims.
The Death Penalty: Justice & Saving More Innocents
and
Students, Academics & Journalists: Death Penalty Research
(7 pro-death penalty experts listed)
Partial CV
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