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Tommy Lee Walker, the Black Dallas Man Executed for 1954 Murder, Declared Innocent
(www.dallasobserver.com)
this post was submitted on 22 Jan 2026
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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.
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.
Ah, the "if you've done nothing wrong you have nothing to fear"-people. They're a fun bunch indeed.
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?"
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.
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.
You are absolutely right!
According to the NIH it's 4.1%, although they admit it's a conservative estimate.
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.
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