by Jacob Horn - Student
The 5th Amendment to the Constitution states that no citizen may “ …be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” This is a guaranteed right being taken away in the state of Florida thanks to the Timely Justice Act signed into law this summer. The law requires that the Governor sign a death warrant within 30 days of the post-conviction clemency meeting and an execution to take place within 180 days of the death warrant being signed.
We are speeding up the execution process in a state that repeals more convictions involving the death penalty than any other in America. These repeals, these exonerations, take years of investigation and appeals.
For example in 2006, Clemente Aguirre was convicted of the murder of two women due mostly to circumstantial evidence. Seven years later, he is now asking for exoneration on the grounds of new DNA evidence proving that somebody else was present at the trailer during the murder, while there was no DNA from Aguirre at the crime scene.
It has taken seven years to find this evidence, but if the Timely Justice Act were a law at the time, he could have never been able to appeal, he could have been another innocent man that died a falsely accused murderer.
Many argue that it’s not right to delay justice, that execution provides a final closure to the families of the victims. They feel that that is justice. But justice is not punishing the guilty, justice is defending the innocent. That is why the burden of proof lies with the accuser and not the accused. It is better to allow a murderer to live than to put an innocent man to die.
Closure is not an issue in court; only thing that matters is that every piece of evidence confirms beyond a doubt that the accused committed the murder. If the that evidence is lacking, and if we allow the accused to be executed or limit their right to effectively appeal, we are the true murderers.
We are speeding up the execution process in a state that repeals more convictions involving the death penalty than any other in America. These repeals, these exonerations, take years of investigation and appeals.
For example in 2006, Clemente Aguirre was convicted of the murder of two women due mostly to circumstantial evidence. Seven years later, he is now asking for exoneration on the grounds of new DNA evidence proving that somebody else was present at the trailer during the murder, while there was no DNA from Aguirre at the crime scene.
It has taken seven years to find this evidence, but if the Timely Justice Act were a law at the time, he could have never been able to appeal, he could have been another innocent man that died a falsely accused murderer.
Many argue that it’s not right to delay justice, that execution provides a final closure to the families of the victims. They feel that that is justice. But justice is not punishing the guilty, justice is defending the innocent. That is why the burden of proof lies with the accuser and not the accused. It is better to allow a murderer to live than to put an innocent man to die.
Closure is not an issue in court; only thing that matters is that every piece of evidence confirms beyond a doubt that the accused committed the murder. If the that evidence is lacking, and if we allow the accused to be executed or limit their right to effectively appeal, we are the true murderers.