DEATH PENALTY I taught a peace and justice class this morning

[Major Nikon]

47. It doesn't mean the outlier is remotely pragmatic either

The standard of proof that exists is already incredibly high because our system of justice favors allowing many guilty to go free rather than wrongly punishing a few innocents. Now add to this the fact that capital punishment cases carry much higher standards of appeal than other criminal cases. So now we are to believe that even if such a much higher standard were actually achievable in the realm of possibility, that such a standard would also be achievable from a practical standpoint. Furthermore all of this assumes our system of investigation, charging, prosecution, and conviction are all never without failure and this is not even within a cab ride of reality. It's certainly possible that BTK wanted to be executed and the police fed him all the information. Is it likely? No, but neither is it beyond impossible, and that's what you are claiming is achievable.

Furthermore, every state in the union that has capital punishment has the right to establish their own legal standards and all of them do. What you are proposing would in all practical sense require a Constitutional amendment or at the very least a very unlikely Supreme Court ruling, all to preserve a piss poor method of punishment the rest of the civilized world considers barbaric.