Bear Flag Blog

I am against the death penalty, not because I think everyone has the right to life regardless of what they do, but because I don't trust the State.

(Now, before any cries of "But you're a liberal! You love the State!" come tumbling out, let me observe that I don't trust the State, but I trust private entities, particularly corporations, even less.)

And my distrust is justified again and again, as people thrown in the slammer (or sentenced to death) twenty, thirty, forty years ago keep being proven innocent through DNA testing. Here's the latest. Donald Gates has been in jail for more than 25 years after being convicted for a rape and murder that he did not, apparently, commit.

Now, it's reprehensible that an innocent man was thrown in jail, and that steams me. But what really angers me nigh-unto-tears-of-rage is the fact that Catherine Schilling did not get justice. The man who raped her and then shot her in the head got away, and thanks to the zealous get-a-conviction-at-all-costs prosecutor, they stopped looking for him.

That's the heart of what really angers me about this whole "find someone, anyone, and string 'em up!" situation we currently have in our justice system. When you convict the wrong guy, the actual rapist - the actual murderer - gets away scot-free. I don't give a flying fuck how bad the crime is, if you are nailing the most convenient suspect on dubious evidence what you are really doing is not only harming an innocent man (who is usually a scumbag, but an innocent one) but you are guaranteeing that the actual criminal gets away.

The prosecutor who pushed the dubious evidence and the false testimony did not only send Donald Gates to prison, he made 100% certain that Catherine Schilling did not get, and would never get, justice. May he burn in hell right alongside her killer.