Imagine being convicted of first degree murder convicted to spend the rest of your life in prison for a murder you didn’t even commit. Since the use of DNA many people have been freed after spending years in prison so we know that it does happen in this country. Being convicted for a murder that you didn’t commit and spending life in prison for it would be bad enough, but there would always be hope that there would be evidence found that could some day prove your innocence and set you free.
But what if everyone already knew that you did not commit the murder? What if everyone already knew that you had absolutely no intention of committing murder but yet you were still convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to spend the rest of your natural life behind bars for something that you did not do. Now that would be hard to swallow.
I must be talking about some case in some third world country were there laws are different and unfair or some communist country locking up people who don’t agree with there way of doing things, but I’m not, I’m talking about the good old U S of A. With the use of a law known as the felony murder rule people are being convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without even killing anyone, without there even being the slightest intent of committing murder in the first degree. Though this law is seen to be unjust and has been done away with in most modern countries and the majority of the states in the USA it is still being used by a handful of states.
If your state still uses the felony murder rule please write to your state representative and tell them that we as a just and decent society need to stop using this unjust law to unfairly convict people for the rest of there lives.
Posted under Justice System
This post was written by admin on November 12, 2008
