Posted: November 13, 2014
In a recent interview, Judge Michael A. Ponsor, who presided over the first federal death penalty trial in Massachusetts
in over 50 years, warned that the death penalty comes with a "heavy
price" - the risk of executing innocent people: "A legal regime
permitting capital punishment comes with a fairly heavy price....where
there’s a death penalty innocent people will die. Sooner or later—we
hope not too often—someone who didn’t commit the crime will be
executed." In 2001, Judge Ponsor oversaw the capital trial of Kristen
Gilbert, a nurse who was charged with killing some of her patients.
Gilbert was ultimately found guilty and sentenced to life without
parole. The judge said the trial made him question the whole process of
death sentencing: "The most profound realization I took from Gilbert was
that human beings getting together to decide whether someone should be
executed, even when they are supervised by a judge, will make mistakes.”Read more
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