Apparently, Gov. Bush was not even informed by his clemency advisors about the request for the DNA test. Unreliable forensic science and a completely inadequate post-conviction review process cost Claude Jones his life. In , Judge Paul Murphy ruled in favor of the Observer and the innocence groups and ordered prosecutors to turn over the evidence for DNA testing.
I hope these results will serve as a wakeup call to everyone that serious problems exist in the criminal justice system that must be fixed if our society is to continue using the death penalty. Bush left office to become President. The independent investigation, reported by the Chicago Tribune, found that prosecutors and arson investigators used arson theories that have since been repudiated by scientific advances.
Willingham was executed in in Texas despite his consistent claims of innocence. He was convicted of murdering his three children in a house fire. It was just a fire.
Willingham was convicted of capital murder after arson investigators concluded that 20 indicators of arson led them to believe that an accelerent had been used to set three separate fires inside his home.
Among the only other evidence presented by prosecutors during the the trial was testimony from jailhouse snitch Johnny E. Webb, a drug addict on psychiatric medication, who claimed Willingham had confessed to him in the county jail.
Evidence discovered years after the Willingham execution showed that the prosecution had given Webb favorable treatment, then deliberately elicited perjured testimony from Webb that he had been promised and given nothing for his testimony. The Marshall Project, August 3, Some of the jurors who convicted Willingham were troubled when told of the new case review. Now I will have to live with this for the rest of my life. Maybe this man was innocent. No relief was granted and Willingham was executed on February 17, The experts noted that the evidence in the Willingham case was nearly identical to the evidence used to exonerate Willis.
Chicago Tribune, December 9, Did Texas execute an innocent man? Sedley Alley was convicted and sentenced to death in for the rape and murder of Lance Cpl. The lawyers appointed to represent him at trial failed to investigate glaring inconsistencies between the physical evidence and a confession Alley consistently said had been coerced. Instead, with no prior history of mental illness, they argued that he suffered from a multiple-personality disorder and was not guilty by reason of insanity.
In , after Alley had lost his appeals, new lawyers were appointed to represent him in clemency proceedings.
Based on these discoveries, they asked for DNA testing of clothing and the murder weapon. Instead, Bredesen directed the lawyers to present their request for testing to the Tennessee courts, which refused to allow the testing to occur. Alley were alive today, he would be entitled to DNA testing under the … statute.
We now have a chance to learn the truth in this case. Bob Lee. After a hearing on September 19, , the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles denied clemency to Troy Davis , despite presentation of testimony casting doubt on his guilt.
The Board had held two previous clemency hearings for Davis, but the makeup of the Board had changed since he was denied clemency in , and new testimony had been given at a federal court hearing in Davis was executed late on the night of Sept.
Supreme Court delayed the execution to consider final appeals, but then denied a stay. Texas executed Lester Bower on June 3, , after he had spent more than 30 years on death row. Bower unsuccessfully challenged his conviction and sentence on numerous grounds, including that prosecutors had withheld evidence from the defense supporting his innocence claim. Bower was convicted of the murder of four men in Grayson County, Texas. He admitted that he had met with one of the men to purchase an ultralight aircraft, which he said the others helped him disassemble and load into his truck.
But he consistently denied any involvement in the killings. Prosecutors obtained the conviction, in part, by arguing that the ammunition provided a vital link between Bower and the killings because that type of ammunition was extremely rare. Later, a woman came forward saying that her boyfriend and his friends had committed the murders after a drug deal had gone wrong. The wife of one of the other men corroborated her story. Just before a. Georgia tried Terrell three times. The first trial ended in a mistrial when jurors could not agree on whether he was guilty.
The second resulted in a conviction that was later overturned by the Georgia Supreme Court. The third trial concluded with a conviction and death sentence. The key testimony against Terrell came from his cousin, Jermaine Johnson, a witness whom defense investigators say later admitted to having lied to save himself.
Johnson spent a year in jail facing the threat of the death penalty before he made a deal with prosecutors to testify against Terrell in exchange for a five-year sentence. Johnson told defense investigators that police and prosecutors had pressured him into giving false testimony against his cousin. Texas executed Richard Masterson on January 20, , amid questions as to whether any murder had occurred at all.
Two pathologists who examined the Honeycutt autopsy data say that the Shrode was unqualified and incorrectly ruled the death a homicide, when it was most likely caused by a heart attack. Shrode was subsequently fired as chief medical examiner in El Paso County, Texas, after discrepancies were found in his resume and revelations were made about his unsupported testimony in the Ohio case. They spend years, decades or even a lifetime behind bars. How big is the problem?
According to the Chicago Tribune , between percent of convictions are wrong. An estimated 46,, innocent people face incarceration. Michelle Cirocco, in Forbes , describes getting a maximum prison sentence when she was a young single mother.
The legal drama focuses on flaws in the criminal justice system. McMillian, an African American, was convicted of the murder of a white woman in Prosecutors used testimony of a convicted felon, who later admitted his testimony was coerced by police.
The data now show that f…. The U. For the Media. For Educators. Fact Sheet. Policy Issues Innocence The death penalty carries the inherent risk of executing an innocent person. Overview Given the fallibility of human judgment, there has always been the danger that an execution could result in the killing of an innocent person. At Issue It is now clear that innocent defendants will be convicted and sentenced to death with some regularity as long as the death penalty exists.
The data now show that f… Read More.
0コメント