I'm no death-penalty fanatic. I've seen good arguments in favor, and the shattered victims they left behind. The best case against it is moral, but the worst opponents are not ethical. They ignore victims and make martyrs of murderers. They sabotage the system at taxpayer expense, then say executions are too costly.
Defense lawyers salt the record with deliberate mistakes, then say the killer had a lousy defense.
The latest twist looks like more of the same. Many are trying, by creating the impression that innocent men are getting toasted. But some stories did not say the study was done by a death-penalty defense lawyer. When the Chicago Tribune reported 127 reversals among 285 cases, Illinois Gov. George Ryan halted executions. But the Tribune was wrong by 40 percent, according to a review by the National District Attorneys Association.