department of health. now hundreds march angry over last month's chemical spill that cut over 300,000 people off from their water. i'm morgan radford for al jazeera america. thanks for watching. "the stream" is up next. supply, plan b can be firing squads, gas chambers or electric chairs. >> lisa fletcher is out. we have our digital dj here with the feed back. we get the most light-hearted topics - first abortion, and now the death penalty. >> all before the weekend. >> this is the third real topic in america, you can't mention it without debate. i am sure the online community

is heating up. >> it is. methods. we have colin on facebook saying:

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>> 2002 this was d.n.a. evidence matching another man. he was arrested. . >> i'm the only female in the united states exonerated from death row. they destroyed my life. i live in the same town. people were saying, "that's that girl that killed her baby", i couldn't get a job. it's hard for me.

>> we are talking about death row inmates, cleared because of d.n.a. testing. >> the first person exonerated joins us now. kirk, at the age of 23 you were convicted for the killing and assault of a 9-year-old girl. you were imprisoned for eight years, two of which were spent on death row. eyewitness testimony landed you on death row. how important is it for america to get the process right? >> well, it's very important. we had 143 individuals who have been convicted of crimes they didn't commit. we sit here and talk about how we'll execute a person. we think about why we should, and there has been so many different people who have been exonerated, you can't climb over the innocent to get to the guilty.

this thing was based on an eyewitness testimony of a person who was 6 foot five, curly blond hair, bushy moustache, and skinny. my hair was as red as a fire plug. we can't get it wrong. we can't execute people when we do. if 143 aircraft fell from the united airlines in the last 30 or 40 years, we would have none of them planes in the air. >> kirk, we are talking about the debate of using lethal injection, it took 26 minutes to kill dennis maguire. as a person that sat on death row. should the executions be halted until we have transparency. >> they should be halted period. there's no way an execution should take place in america with the evidence. and this is factual evidence, of innocent people who have been

convicted and sentences to death row. we can't do this. i understand that the public wants retribution. it's not what this is about. don't climb over me to kill an innocent experience. >> the prosecutors are looking for a death sentence for the boston bomber. the feds argue: >> reaction to the decision is mixed. the mother of a victim was opposed to the death penalty and is reconsidering her position. a poll found 57% of those surveyed favoured a sentence of life in prison. what is the community saying? >> we have a comment from henry who says:

we put out the question whether families of victims should have a say and they say: >> if you have a family that essentially has lost someone to some vicious crime, whether there was sexual abuse or torture, before death, and they tell you that they cannot find peace unless the person who committed the crime is no more, how do you argue back with that? what do you say with them? >> sure. i think taking into consideration the family of the victims feelings is important. we have a process to do that in court called victim impact. at the end of the day we don't have vig lanty justice. there's a number of factors that contribute to a killing. societal factors, vulnerability factors.

human error, prejudice, all kinds of things. part of the aim of the justice system is to remove some of the emotion, remove some of the bias, remove some of that desire to fill the emotional void left by losing a loved one and come in and think about what is right. as a government, and as a society, what doing. >> bob and colorado is fighting to keep the state from executing his son's killer. some in boston believe the suspect behind the bombing shouldn't be executed and should get life in prison. should the views of family members be considered when deciding to seek capital punishment. >> certainly they should be, but we don't have a vigilante system. we don't say whatever the individuals decide ought to be the consequence.

these two brother plotted, schemed and planned to murder as many people as possible. we'll have a trial. he'll be allowed to make the argument about why he did what he did and argue that he shouldn't get the maximum punishment. after all of that evidence goes forward, he absolutely is likely to be found guilty and likely to be determined to be the next federal executed prisoner. that is a process that would immediately lead to a series of appeals, but once that process is completed, i'm going to be satisfied that the penalty assessed is one that is just. >> kirk, you are in a unique position. how did the victim's family respond to your conviction and what did they say upon hearing you were innocent of the crime?

>> in the beginning everyone wanted me to die. the prosecutor wanted me to die saying "he did it." the police officers, they said, "he did it." the state of maryland thought of me as the most hated man in america. in the end in the final analysis they were dead wrong. and, you know, this bombing suspect in boston - you know, we haven't had a trial yet. let's see what they have to say. instead of worrying about how a person should be executed, we should worry about people who haven't done a thing wrong. we putting people in prison who are incident as the day is long. ray grown, sabrina butler explains it quite clear myself. 143 people. we can no longer have the death penalty in this country.

>> how critical is the execution to the healing process families? >> i look at kirt's situation and take my position. say kirt was there and he lost his appeals and i executed kirt. get what i'm saying. how would i deal with myself. how would the executioner deal with themselves to take an incident life. it shows that innocent people are on death row. death will come to all of us. if a hurricane comes through and kills your child. the family can only get mad at god that things like that happen. death will come to all of us. >> before we go break. >> sara on twitter says, "it's

expensive and how many innocent people have been killed. also: >> they are referring to cases where people have experienced repeated. >> moving on - state's rights for federal mandate. who should despite the future of the death penalty in america? if you want more interaction check this out. >> tv is no longer one way, with the stream second screen app. share your thought. disagree with a guest - tell us. get exclusive app content. interact with other app users in real time. you can be the third cohost. vote, tweet, record video comments and we'll feature them on air. use the app and driving the discussions on live tv.

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>> welcome back. we're discussing the future of the death penalty in the united states, and we're asking our community, should it be abolished? >> our county is heavily favored in leaving it up to the states. and national politicians would require federal funding and higher taxes:

>> horace, with the few minutes that we have left, the state of maryland spend $200 million on five executions, and some say the economic costs are a reason to push for life in prison. >> first off, the states that have eliminated the death penalty are waiting for a new tax that will come on life sens or extensive sentences, and our system is just as amenable for that, because it's not a perfect system. and we should reinvest in it, and make sure that it's working better, but opponents, generally speaking, opens the concept the but i want to make a quick point. internationally, the mov not as clear as critics of the death penalty. you're seeing it in the uk, france, and poland, a movement. some members of the mps and the eu are push being against

the whole idea that the entire continent ought to be death penalty. >> aaron, we have 2.4 million in prison, and is live in prison the best alternative to the death penalty and if not, what is? >> i think life in prison without the possibility of parole is the best alternative as our system is now. i think that we have tremendous problems in our system, and it is important to litigate those problems, and to draw awareness. we want to have the best system, and a system that has the most chances of rehabilitating people, as well as not convict being innocent people. so to the extent that we can move away from models that focus solely on punishment and get back to models that look at the causes of crime, and how we can deter crime in the future, it's a good thing and absolutely the right direction to be move in.

is it enough? but is it a good start? yes. >> kurt, the final 30 second, how should america move forward? >> we have the death penalty in america, and we have proven it time and time again. the sentence of death has had its day, and it's time to end it. 143 death row survivors in the united states tells me one thing, that the government and the criminal justice system got it dead wrong, and the next time we might execute somebody, it innocent man. >> thank you to all of our guests for this fantastic conversation. thank you for joining us, and thank you as always for our fantastic community and all of your live feedback, until next time, we'll see you online at aljazeera.com/ajam stream.

>> from al jazeera's international news center in doha, this is the news hour. welcome to the show. two trucks carrying humanitarian supplies come under fire. aid workers are reportedly injured. protests in istanbul against new controls on the internet. hello, we have all the news from europe including protests