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Cook: The most broken system in Tennessee

FILE – In this November 2005 file photo, Larry Greene, public information director of the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility, demonstrates how a curtain is pulled between the death chamber and witness room at the prison in Lucasville, Ohio. Ohio plans to resume executions in January 2017 with a new three-drug combination, an attorney representing the state told a federal judge Monday, Oct. 3, 2016. (AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato, File)
FILE – In this November 2005 file photo, Larry Greene, public information director of the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility, demonstrates how a curtain is pulled between the death chamber and witness room at the prison in Lucasville, Ohio. Ohio plans to resume executions in January 2017 with a new three-drug combination, an attorney representing the state told a federal judge Monday, Oct. 3, 2016. (AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato, File) FILE – In this November 2005 file photo, Larry Greene, public information director of the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility, demonstrates how a curtain is pulled between the death chamber and witness room at the prison in Lucasville, Ohio. Ohio plans to resume executions in January 2017 with a new three-drug combination, an attorney representing the state told a federal judge Monday, Oct. 3, 2016. (AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato, File)

By David Cook 4 min read

photo David Cook

If You Go

What: Criminal justice speaker series featuring Ray Krone and panelWhere: Chattanooga State’s Center for Advanced TechnologyWhen: Thursday, Oct. 27, 6 p.m.

View other columns by David Cook

Need a reason to be against the death penalty?

How about a dozen?

1. It’s not reliable.

Since 1973, a long line of death row inmates have been exonerated, their innocence discovered years after their capital trial, meaning that what needs to be our purest, most trusted system of justice is our most flawed: We have imprisoned innocent people and, more than likely, executed them, as well.