this post was submitted on 22 Jan 2026

192 points (100.0% liked)

News

37627 readers

1487 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil

Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.

2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.

Obvious biased sources will be removed at the mods’ discretion. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted separately but not to the post body. Sources may be checked for reliability using Wikipedia, MBFC, AdFontes, GroundNews, etc.

3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.

Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.

4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source. Clickbait titles may be removed.

Posts which titles don’t match the source may be removed. If the site changed their headline, we may ask you to update the post title. Clickbait titles use hyperbolic language and do not accurately describe the article content. When necessary, post titles may be edited, clearly marked with [brackets], but may never be used to editorialize or comment on the content.

5. Only recent news is allowed.

Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.

6. All posts must be news articles.

No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials, videos, blogs, press releases, or celebrity gossip will be allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis. Mods may use discretion to pre-approve videos or press releases from highly credible sources that provide unique, newsworthy content not available or possible in another format.

7. No duplicate posts.

If an article has already been posted, it will be removed. Different articles reporting on the same subject are permitted. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.

8. Misinformation is prohibited.

Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.

9. No link shorteners or news aggregators.

All posts must link to original article sources. You may include archival links in the post description. News aggregators such as Yahoo, Google, Hacker News, etc. should be avoided in favor of the original source link. Newswire services such as AP, Reuters, or AFP, are frequently republished and may be shared from other credible sources.

10. Don't copy entire article in your post body

For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

JonsJava@lemmy.world

gedaliyah@lemmy.world

little_cow@lemmy.world

192

Tommy Lee Walker, the Black Dallas Man Executed for 1954 Murder, Declared Innocent (www.dallasobserver.com)

submitted 3 months ago by gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

21 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Archived at https://archive.ph/KJ4hu

top 21 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] TrickDacy@lemmy.world 50 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (4 children)

This is why there shouldn't be capital punishment.

The tradeoff people make who support the death penalty which is unspoken is: "it's worth killing a few innocent people as long as we kill the guilty too." And it's so fucked up. My parents hear me explain this and literally have no reaction. They cannot even engage with the idea that innocent people being murdered by the state is a horror that cannot be accepted. It's just the cost of "justice" for them, apparently.

[–] wide_eyed_stupid@lemmy.world 17 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

That's such a weird thing to say, as well, because when innocent people are being killed by the state there is no justice. I often wonder if people even think about what they're saying, or if they're just regurgitating shit they heard somewhere.

The cost of justice is... injustice? Make it make sense.

[–] Zombiepirate@lemmy.world 12 points 3 months ago (1 children)

You'd be surprised how many people I've talked to who think that if someone was picked up by the cops they were doing something to deserve it.

It's staggering how many people blame the victim for the police being incompetent.

[–] wide_eyed_stupid@lemmy.world 7 points 3 months ago

Ah, the "if you've done nothing wrong you have nothing to fear"-people. They're a fun bunch indeed.

[–] TrickDacy@lemmy.world 7 points 3 months ago (2 children)

What they're really saying is they think any injustice there (which they refuse to think about) is worth it. They probably rationalize it by saying to themselves that innocent people being executed is a super rare thing. But it's not. I'd guess it's as high as 30%. But that's admittedly a total guess.

In the end though, to support the death penalty, you have to intentionally refuse to think "what if the courts were wrong?"

[–] wide_eyed_stupid@lemmy.world 6 points 3 months ago (1 children)

You're right. But it seems worse than that somehow. I've seen many people say they support the death penalty because it keeps other people safe, to "remove" murderers from society and such. But it's so disingenuous.

We can already remove dangers from our society, in less.. final ways. We can lock them up, or have them admitted to institutions in cases of mental health issues. We can rehabilitate them whenever possible, which also removes the danger.

But no, that's not good enough. These people think they absolutely have to die. They want other people to be murdered by the state. They want it so much that they are willing to sacrifice a bunch of innocent people to satisfy their own bloodlust.

It's worse than ignoring it, it's actively seeking it out for their murderous desires.

[–] TrickDacy@lemmy.world 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I totally agree. If there was a way we could be absolutely certain of guilt, I would support it in some limited cases. But that's absolutely impossible. There's always planting evidence, etc. So it is indefensible.

[–] wide_eyed_stupid@lemmy.world 2 points 3 months ago

You are absolutely right!

[–] village604@adultswim.fan 4 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

According to the NIH it's 4.1%, although they admit it's a conservative estimate.

... if all death-sentenced defendants remained under sentence of death indefinitely at least 4.1% would be exonerated.

Not that it changes the message, I was just curious if anyone had done the math.

Doing some napkin math, with 1654 executions having taken place since 1970, that means that at least 68 innocent people have been murdered by the state.

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 3 points 3 months ago

Holy fuck that's nearly 1/20. That's a wildly unacceptable margin of error. Hell it's an unacceptable margin of error for a long term prison sentence

[–] Typhoonigator@lemmy.world 12 points 3 months ago (1 children)

When an innocent person is killed, even if you mistakenly thought they really really deserved it, that's murder. What do we do with murderers? We kill them. But if one supports a system that murders, they become party to that murder. I'm not keen on being a part of a murder system, no matter how occasional.

Alternatively, to appeal to the selfish, if one is willing to allow a few innocents to die for a broken system to function, they they'd better be okay with being one of those innocents.

Either way, I don't trust the state to decide who lives and dies.

[–] village604@adultswim.fan 5 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Let's get even more selfish. Executions cost the state more than life in prison. Financially it's a stupid thing to do.

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 4 points 3 months ago

The problem with that argument is execution states are trying to cheap out over it. They'd love to get rid of the extra appeals capital cases get

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 7 points 3 months ago

Honestly there are so fucking many reasons against it. I can respect it as a penalty in international law, but for criminal law it's nuts. It's obviously cruel and unusual punishment (as is solitary). It gets overturned post mortem regularly. Increasingly they're just killing people despite reasonable doubt being found. It's a stain on our collective souls. It's wildly expensive. And it's ineffective as a deterrent.

[–] Deceptichum@quokk.au 3 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Reverse Blackstone’s ratio.

It is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer.

[–] TrickDacy@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago

Yeah, pretty much. Pretty awful.

[–] Mantzy81@aussie.zone 44 points 3 months ago

And this is why, no matter how abhorrent some people are or seem, or even if they admit their guilt, that the death penalty shouldn't be enforced.

[–] SayJess@lemmy.blahaj.zone 23 points 3 months ago (1 children)

“I’m 72 years old, and I still miss my daddy,” he said while crying.

Bawled my eyes out. The state took that boys father, who was himself just 19 years old, and killed him. They robbed that boy of the bond of a father’s love. How does that not destroy a family? My son is around Tommy’s age right now. Imagining the terror his parents must have felt, and the new reality that they now lived in, just makes me bawl my eyes out. That poor boy, never had a fucking chance.

[–] grue@lemmy.world 9 points 3 months ago

How does that not destroy a family?

[Insert "that's the neat part..." meme]

Not only is that outcome completely intended, it also gets used for victim-blaming, to perpetuate the racist notion of the "absent black father."

[–] newthrowaway20@lemmy.world 11 points 3 months ago

Little late there.

[–] Raiderkev@lemmy.world 4 points 3 months ago

Inb4 the trump regime calls this woke and orders the corpse dug up to be executed again.