The death penalty?

[ShirleyNot]

@Meloncollie

Since 1973, in the US 203 people have been exonerated after being convicted and sentenced to death.

That begs the question, how many slipped through the legal safety net and met a grisly end?

[Roxi]

Can you provide your source for the claim how many cleared cases of violent crimes don’t make it to trial?

[Bowlie]

I suspect more than 203.

[Fatmanfilms]

@litespeed

Perhaps. However, none of us (I assume) have witnessed an execution in real life. I believe that experience would change the mind of many, if not most, death penalty supporters.

I have seen a horse being shot

[Aargauer]

In Japan, unlike in some other democracies, arrests require permission of judges except for cases such as arresting someone while committing a crime. Only significant cases with sufficient evidence are subject to indictment, since becoming a party to a criminal trial imposes a burden on a suspect; Japan’s indictment ratio is only 37%—“99.3%” is the percentage of convictions divided by the number of indictments, not the criminals. As such, the conviction rate is high.

Conviction rate

The Ministry of Justice：Response by MORI Masako, Minister of Justice, to the...

[Roxi]

A general indictment rate of 37% isn’t too much of a surprise given that it inludes stuff like petty theft. So, thanks but that’s not what I’m asking for or talking about.

I explicitly speak of violent crimes (homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, and kidnapping) a group of crimes where the public interest in locking the baddies up behind bars is much higher and thus the consequences of the indictment on the suspect’s life are far less relevant.