You may be misunderstanding me or just trying to be obtuse by watering down my point. What I want wouldn't apply to everyone on death row. What I'm trying to raise the point of is, what's the point of having someone who has done something terrible where there is incontrovertible evidence, eye witness accounts or video, whatever, sit on death row for years?
Yeah, I think there is little point to that--but in my view, they wouldn't be sitting on death row for years, because death row wouldn't exist.
It's a completely untenable system because it invariably leads to state-sanctioned murder of innocent people. We know it has done that, and we know it will continue to do that.
They would be sitting in prison for life...which would actually be more efficient than what we have now. Death row is expensive because it has to be--one can't argue that we need to "make it cheaper," because that process is what allows us to exonerate the innocent. Imagine how many of those, sitting there 3 or 10 years even, would have been killed needlessly?
There is simply no way to improve that system without accepting that you are condemning innocent people, in greater numbers than we ever have.
I can't accept that system.