That’s why its called Law and not Justice 
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Whenever I read stories like this I think about the question, “Have you ever been convicted of a crime?” on job applications. All the applications I’ve seen only have spaces for “Yes” or “No”. There’s no space for “I was wrongly convicted”.
Even on those that have some additional space for an explanation I figure that most employers are going to throw out any application that has a “Yes”.
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That’s exactly what it is. It’s not all-great or all-horrible…it’s mixed. You even said so yourself:
And while it seems this particular individual has managed to retain his humanity and a strong, loving extended family willing to support him unconditionally, that is extremely unusual for those who have been incarcerated in the U.S. for extended periods of time. There are worse things than dying.
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That’s why getting an exoneration is so important: it means you can legally say “no”.
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Not really, that’s just a thing wannabes say. It’s hard to do much of anything once you’re dead, which is why it’s better to live on your feet than to die on your knees.
What about living on your knees or dying on your feet? If the adversary is strong enough, this may be the actually offered choice.
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You have it backwards. I know, because I am 107 years old.
Let’s roll this back a bit. I said “well, at least he wasn’t executed”, to which someone replied “meh, it’s a mixed blessing”. I take that to mean that the guy would have been better off if he’d been executed (for nothing, let us recall) than undergo the indiginities of whatever. Forced sodomy? Regular beatings? Having his breakfast yogurt stolen every Tuesday?
I reject that view. Regardless of what happened to Jackson in prison, he is better off alive than dead. There is nothing ‘mixed’ about that.
Given that we have no idea about how it feels to be dead, I’d reckon that such discussions are hypothetical at best.
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While technically true, that’s an even more absurd position. There is no logical difference between what you said - ‘being dead might be better than being wrongfully imprisoned for 39 years then released’ - and ‘being dead might be better than being alive.’
And even if it is true, I still reject it. We all die someday, so one way or another we’re all going to find out if you’re right. But, in the meantime, being alive - and free - means Jackson gets to spend this Christmas with his family. And celebrate his next birthday on a sailboat, or at Disneyland, or in bed, or painting a picture, or whatever the hell he wants to do. He can’t do any of that dead. Or any other damn thing.
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You are very fortunate to have never known somebody for whom life was truly no longer bearable.
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And I admire your tremendous courageous, making that call on behalf of someone else. Jackson will die happy, sure in the knowledge that you know what’s best for him.
Where are you getting the idea that I’m speaking about this one man in particular? Your response to me agreeing with other posters that the term “mixed blessing” gets the complexity of the situation right was to make the global statement that no situation in life is so dire that dying would be better, which I disagreed with. We’ve moved on from Mr. Jackson’s individual situation. As I said, his circumstances are unusually supportive so for him, he’s got a good chance for the rest of his life. That’s not true for most people who spend 4 decades in the U.S. prison system.
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Where are you getting the idea that I’m speaking about this one man in particular?
Probably from the same place you think I’m not.
Sure, but … tell me again what chance someone who is dead has?
That’s not true for most people who spend 4 decades in the U.S. prison system.
Ok, so … which ones do we kill in the sure knowledge that they’ll be happier and have more opportunities for self-improvment dead than alive?
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