“When I first realized that the Democratic debate was addressing death penalty issues, I got excited. Perhaps this is the place where an honest debate and discussion about flaws in the system will finally take place at the governor-level.
Nope. Farouk Shami of Houston blew that prospect out of the water with the bizarre allegation that “lots” of innocent people have been put to death in Texas in the past few years.
Credibility is vital to those who, like Shami, seek a moratorium (or more) on the death penalty in Texas. When people are sloppy with the facts, it does no one any good. Case in point: Todd Willingham. Those howling that he is innocent are marginalized. But those who stick to what we know — that the evidence used to convict him was tainted by junk science and poor assumptions made by debunked “experts” — keep the issue on track. The issue isn’t guilt or innocence. The issue is a broken system and politicians who refuse to admit the flaws exist.
Of course, it’s easy to shut out evidence when people say things, like Shami did, that are so obviously unsupported.”