An execution comes after years of due process of the law, he said. Even the slightest hint of doubt, the system has worked. It simple doesn't happen that innocent people are put to death. The punishment helps close cases, too. Many times a prosecutor is able to get the prisoner to plead instead of risking a capital sentence.
Prisoners are afraid of being executed.
And that's good. The state Supreme Court has heard arguments in the appeals of 2 convicted murderers that have been sentenced to die by lethal injection. Lawyers for Shawn Jacobs of Albuquerque and Timothy Allen of Bloomfield asked justices to overturn their respective murder convictions and sentences. Both cases involved the murder of teenage girls and in each case prosecutors successfully argued that men kidnapped their victims. Lawyers for both men argued that there was insufficient evidence to support the kidnapping charges.