The landmark death penalty case Gregg v. Georgia turns thirty today (a copy of the decision can be found here)–something no American should celebrate.  Over at The Nation, Bruce Shapiro has some interesting commentary.  Perhaps the people who gush about the moral and social importance of executing people should take the time to volunteer with a local chapter of The Innocence Project.  It is an eye-opening experience that forces one to reexamine one’s perhaps uninformed views concerning whether the state ought to be in the killing business.  Seeing first hand just how incompetent prosecutors, judges, and juries can be is a painful reminder of why we should pause before rushing people off to the gallows (or strapping them to gurneys–to speak in a more timely fashion). 

In order to prevent people from trying to suggest that the fact that 180 people have been exonerated is evidence the system is working, let me remind everyone that The Innocence Project is not part of the system at all.  Indeed, it is a non-profit organization that only exists because the system often miserably fails the wrongfully convicted–who are forced to fight their sentences (and the system) tooth and nail.