XPost: talk.politics.drugs, talk.politics.guns, alt.current-events.usa   
   XPost: talk.politics.misc, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, alt.politics.usa.republican   
   XPost: alt.politics.bush, alt.law-enforcement   
   From: drp@drproctor.com   
      
   On Fri, 19 Dec 2003 12:41:38 -0600, Peter H. Proctor   
    wrote:   
      
   >On Fri, 19 Dec 2003 17:54:06 GMT, "Ken [NY)"  wro   
   >   
   >> It has never been proved that anyone who was innocent has been   
   >>executed. Cases in which people have been found to be legally and/or   
   >>factually innocent simply prove the system works, she said.   
   >   
   >          Logically,,   It is impossible to prove a negative.     So,   
   >in a sense this straw arguement is correct....  This does not make it   
   >any less a straw arguement.   
      
          To illustrate: ---   you cannot "prove"  that you did not kill   
   President Kennedy.     For example,  you may have many wittnesses that   
   you were somewhere else at the time.  But wittnesses can always be   
   suborned.   
      
          Similarly,  you might argue that you were not even born at the   
   time.   But how are we to know that the birth records are correct or   
   that you did not just assume somebody elses identity?   And so forth.   
   The best you or anyone can do is establish that the probability you   
   killed Kennedy is very small.   
      
   Dr P   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)