"With the system that we have in place today, if an erroneous conviction does occur, we can confer the appropriate freedom and liberty on an individual. I think that is a much, much better option for all of us, rather than a lifelong regret that an innocent person's life was taken."
-Speaker Tom Finneran

Tom Finneran began his legislative career supporting capital punishment, but in 1982, he changed his position after meeting a gentleman who had been wrongly convicted. Bobby Jo Leaster had served 15 years for a capital crime he did not commit when he was exonerated with the help of a number of journalists and lawyers. At this point, Tom Finneran reevaluated his position because he recognized that "this gentleman could have had his life taken from him on the basis of a vote that I had taken."