The post is indeed arguing that “zero people killed by the government for crimes they did not commit” is more ok than “greater than zero people killed.”
This is a valid argument, drawing on the intuition that accidentally letting a guilty person escape death (even if we accept they deserve it) is a lesser evil than letting an innocent person die.
> because so many of the people sentenced to death are actually innocent.
He puts a vague number to it in my reading.
The government regularly lets people die. The government regularly lets innocent people die. The government regularly changes things that then changes who dies. A human life is only worth around $2,000,000 in the rich west like the US. People, inflate that number a lot, but it's actually low millions.
If the argument is it has to be 0.00 for direct action by the government that deliberately kills a person then say it. That's the end. It's not possible to get 0, don't bring in the fact it's 4% or x% or bring in case studies because that's just a changing goal post.
The reason for the 'changing goal post' is because no one can ask why is the direct killing of innocent people different to allowing innocent people to die.
[edit] Here's a 150 year old 'against' blog post that innocent people will die - https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/128491969 Back then it was all about the innocent witches (which still happens today sadly)
The post is indeed arguing that “zero people killed by the government for crimes they did not commit” is more ok than “greater than zero people killed.”
This is a valid argument, drawing on the intuition that accidentally letting a guilty person escape death (even if we accept they deserve it) is a lesser evil than letting an innocent person die.