Plans of Pardoning War Criminals on Memorial Day

[Cavebear]

Trump is suggesting (not actually has) pardoning some few military people who wantonly killed innocent men, women, and children.  They were judged by their own military peers to have committed crimes. 

But Trump is using the IDEA of falsely-punished military people to gain sympathy as a distraction from his real lack of understanding military stresses.  I won't give him any points for that.

[Baruch]

Cavebear ... did you support Bill Clinton's outrageous pardons of Dec 2000?  Mark Rich for example?

[Cavebear]

Cavebear ... did you support Bill Clinton's outrageous pardons of Dec 2000?  Mark Rich for example?

No. 

[Baruch]

No.

Good.  Of course one bad thing doesn't excuse another.  I don't know if anyone, in any trial, is actually guilty.  I admit my limits.  Do you believe that every jury is correct?

[Cavebear]

Good.  Of course one bad thing doesn't excuse another.  I don't know if anyone, in any trial, is actually guilty.  I admit my limits.  Do you believe that every jury is correct?

No.  Witness evidence is routinely poor and evidence is routinely misread.  Yet the guilty parties in most instances are so obviously guilty that even errors don't matter much. 

Various studies estimate that in the United States, between 2.3 and 5% of all prisoners are innocent. One study estimated that up to 10,000 people may be wrongfully convicted of serious crimes each year.

A 2014 study estimated that 4.1% of inmates awaiting execution on death row in the United States are innocent, and that at least 340 innocent people may have been executed since 1973. (Wikipedia)

College experiments have routinely shown that most witnesses misremember the most obvious facts.

I once saw a PBS show that demonstrated that.  A staged "crime" was committed in a public area.  The witnesses were interviewed by professionals.  The witnesses had wildly varying accounts of the criminal, the crime, and the aftermath. 

Is that sufficient?

[Baruch]

Yes.  So why are these convicted people guilty, other than they were part of a policy you oppose?

[Cavebear]

Yes.  So why are these convicted people guilty, other than they were part of a policy you oppose?

Its not my policy.  Innocent people are routinely convicted by bad evidence.  Not most, but too many.