Why President Obama should take the lead on abolishing the death penalty

President Obama recently declared in a press conference with Angela Merkel that he thought that "we do have to, as a society, ask ourselves some difficult and profound questions around these issues", while reaffirming his belief the death penalty is an appropriate punishment for certain crimes". He added: "Racial bias. Uneven application of the death penalty. Situations in which there were individuals on death row who later on were discovered to have been innocent because of exculpatory evidence - all these I think do raise significant questions about how the death penalty is being applied," 

Whilst there will be always people to think that Clayton Lockett was "a rapist murderer, not a victim" of the botched execution, and that "he got off easy" compared to his victim, we should not forget that there are currently a significant number of prisoners on death row who might be facing execution, whilst possibly innocent. 

A recent study found there may be as much as 4% of innocent prisoners currently on death row in the USA - a conservative number according to some. That is to say: Over 100 people who not only may die whilst being innocent, but also, over 100 people who could die in a botched execution, such as the one which happened to Clayton Lockett.

Who will support the execution of an innocent man - And who will support the botched execution of an innocent man?