this post was submitted on 22 Jan 2026

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180

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

submitted 1 day ago by gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

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[–] TrickDacy@lemmy.world 49 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day 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.

[–] Deceptichum@quokk.au 3 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours 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 19 hours ago

Yeah, pretty much. Pretty awful.

[–] wide_eyed_stupid@lemmy.world 17 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day 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 11 points 1 day 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 4 points 1 day ago

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

[–] TrickDacy@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day 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 1 day 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 1 day 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 1 day ago

You are absolutely right!

[–] village604@adultswim.fan 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day 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 2 points 1 day 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 11 points 1 day 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 1 day 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 3 points 1 day 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 6 points 1 day 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.

[–] Mantzy81@aussie.zone 42 points 1 day 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.

[–] Raiderkev@lemmy.world 4 points 20 hours ago

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

[–] SayJess@lemmy.blahaj.zone 23 points 1 day 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 8 points 1 day 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 1 day ago

Little late there.