The debate in Massachusetts continues. This morning, a commentary on the "scientific certainty" of Governor Romney's capital punishment plan. The article criticizes the idea that any plan for applying the death penalty could ever be foolproof or "no doubt." The author provides a couple of good examples of how DNA evidence could be used to convict (and kill) the wrong individual and proposes that Massachusetts leave the death penalty off the table and, instead, work to determine how wrongful convictions come about and attempt to prevent more from happening.

"then [the council] has failed to achieve the Romney administration's stated goal--a system where there is 'no doubt' as to the defendant's guilt and where (here the weasel words creep in) the result is 'as accurate as humanly possible' (emphasis added). Rather than pursue this unattainable objective, we should continue to ban capital punishment, while improving the criminal-justice system generally by establishing an Innocence Commission to examine how each wrongful conviction has come about and seek to prevent recurrences."

Scientific uncertainty