Wow. Every now and then those "checks and balances" actually manifest themselves. How cool.

Yes, I am against the death penalty. Those of you who already think of me as a bleeding heart liberal probably already assumed that I'm against it for hippy-dippy reasons, but there's really more to it than that.

I feel that the risk of putting even a single innocent person to death is far too great -- that it's better to pay for housing all of the criminals than to attempt to save money by putting the "bad ones" to death.

With all the talk lately about the elimination of due process for those suspected of "terrorist" acts, and the kind of non-criminal behavior that is routinely being misinterpreted as "suspicious" activity (like reading certain books at the library, etc.), the prospect of putting suspects to death without due process makes this scenario even more frightening. Without due process, errors can easily be entered into the system. Even with due process, errors can easily be entered into the system. Humans make errors. Plain and simple. Witnesses are mistaken, etc.

Guilty "criminals" are proven "not guilty" after new evidence and the re-opening of investigations all the time.

The situation below is just a perfect example of human error in action. These errors can take years to surface. You can never give these people (or their families) their lives back after the fact.

Supreme Court stops 300th Texas execution

The Supreme Court on Wednesday stopped Texas from executing its 300th inmate since capital punishment resumed in the United States in 1977, granting a dramatic last-minute stay to condemned killer Delma Banks.

Banks' claims that he was wrongly convicted of a murder 23 years ago were backed by three former federal judges.

His lawyers told justices that he was poorly represented at trial, that prosecutors improperly kept blacks off the jury, and that testimony from two prosecution witnesses was shaky. Banks is black, his victim was white and the jury was all-white.

The court issued the stay, without comment, about 10 minutes before the 44-year-old was to be put to death for the 1980 murder of 16-year-old Richard Wayne Whitehead, a co-worker at a restaurant. Banks shot Whitehead ‘‘for the hell of it" after a night of drinking, according to testimony Banks gave at his trial.

Here is the full text of the entire article in case the link goes bad:

http://www.salon.com/news/wire/2003/03/12/supreme/index.html

March 12, 2003 | WASHINGTON (AP) --

The Supreme Court on Wednesday stopped Texas from executing its 300th inmate since capital punishment resumed in the United States in 1977, granting a dramatic last-minute stay to condemned killer Delma Banks.

Banks' claims that he was wrongly convicted of a murder 23 years ago were backed by three former federal judges.

His lawyers told justices that he was poorly represented at trial, that prosecutors improperly kept blacks off the jury, and that testimony from two prosecution witnesses was shaky. Banks is black, his victim was white and the jury was all-white.

The court issued the stay, without comment, about 10 minutes before the 44-year-old was to be put to death for the 1980 murder of 16-year-old Richard Wayne Whitehead, a co-worker at a restaurant. Banks shot Whitehead ‘‘for the hell of it" after a night of drinking, according to testimony Banks gave at his trial.

Banks has been on death row 22 years, longer than Whitehead was alive.

One of the three former federal judges supporting the Supreme Court intervention was former FBI Director William Sessions, who submitted a brief to the high court in which he cited ‘‘uncured constitutional errors" in Banks' case.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals this week refused to block Banks' execution, and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles would not hear his plea because it was filed too late.