Today, while enjoying a cappucino and reading a local weekly (Bay Guardian), I came across a story about a moratorium on the death penalty in Il. Imposed by gov. Jim Edgar. So I came home and did a search to learn more.
Here’s one story. http://www.abanet.org/irr/hr/deathpen.html
There are more.
My question is, have they missed anyone? Are there any recent instances of an innocent person being put to death? Anywhere in the U.S.
Many have come very close.
Peace,
mangeorge
I only know two things;
I know what I need to know
And
I know what I want to know
Mangeorge, 2000
Well, I guess that answers my question.
Leo Jones, Florida
Convicted 1981 Executed 1998
David Spence, Texas
Conviction 1983? Executed 1997
JosephO’Dell, Virginia
Conviction 1986 Executed 1997
Roger Coleman, Virginia
Conviction 1982 Executed 1992
At least four men recently executed in spite of serious doubts about their guilt. The last, Roger Coleman, because he failed a lie detector test. Administered while he was facing death. Good lord!
Why is it that there isn’t more interest among our legal community in persuing the facts of these cases after the people are dead? Especially among the leaders?
Shit.
Peace,
mangeorge
It seems to me that almost all the cases described in the links posted are examples of people, wrongly or rightly convicted, who were NOT executed, and in fact came nowhere NEAR execution. In other words, they’re examples of a “system” (I use the term generously) that actually works.
The first execution here in Ohio in more than thirty years took place last February, and the case is at least as typical as those cited in the links. Wilford Lee Berry murdered his boss in 1989 and was convicted in 1990. There was never a question of his guilt, and Berry consistently and steadfastly refused to pursue appeals. From the moment of his conviction and sentencing, Berry petitioned the state repeatedly for prompt execution. Still, it took nine years to move from his conviction to his execution.
No innocent person SHOULD spend even a single day behind bars, much less on death row. Equally no person SHOULD take the life of another person. It seems over-optimistic to expect perfection in a system designed to deal with the obvious imperfection of mankind.
I’d be interested to see a compilation of the cases where, despite incontrovertible evidence, death row inmates had their sentences commuted or vacated on technicalities or some other insubstantial grounds. For example, Ohio’s last liberal Democrat governor, Dick Celeste, commuted the death sentences of 8 convicted murderers on his last day in office. Four of the inmates were women; Celeste said he felt their sentences hadn’t been fair. The four men, however, received commutations for no other reason than Celeste thought they would be the soonest executed.
What a guy!
I don’t know why fortune smiles on some and lets the rest go free…
Becase, as you can see from TBone2’s post (and this is already becoming a Great Debate), making any kind of argument against the death penalty makes you appear “soft on crime”, with is a political death knell. Public opinion in the USA is in majority in favour of the death penalty, and people care more about the length of the appeals process than innocents being executed.
Don’t forget that for every modern case of convictions being overturned because of new techniques like DNA tests, they are probably many historical cases of innocent people that were executed.
And for anyone that’s going to argue against the length of the appeals process, the cases mentioned above (prisoners innocent of the crime for which they were on death row, and being later exonerate) clearly demonstrates the need for a lengthy appeals process.
That a guilty man may spend the rest of his life in prison instead of being executed doesn’t trouble me at all. What does bother me is the possibility that an innocent man may be put to death, and the system that executed him is reluctant to investigate the possibility of error.
My question is has this happened, and why won’t they exhaust all avenues to get to the truth.
Peace,
mangeorge
And no, I didn’t post this as a debate. I’m not argueing the morality of capitol punishment, I’m asking about the possibility of an innocent person being put to death. Not at all an abstract concept. I think it’s a question in need of an answer.
Peace,
mangeorge
George, the trouble is that once a person is executed, the incentive to prove his innocence tends to go as well. So no, there haven’t been any recent cases where an executee has been conclusively determined to be innocent. There are, however, a number of cases that many people (including in some cases the prosecutors) came to believe were innocent: look up the names Roy Stewart, Jessie De Wayne Jacobs, Leonel Herrera (subject of the famous Supreme Court ruling that new evidence of innocence is not grounds for habeas corpus relief), Robert Nelson Drew, and Joseph O’Dell, to name a few.
People like TBone who point to the released inmates as proof that the system works amaze me. It beggars belief to think that we could screw up that badly on so many occasions, and yet always catch our mistakes in time.
In Illinois, anyway, one of these men came within TWO days of being executed. The big event was postponed (not canceled) only because of questions about his mental fitness to be executed. Only later did another man confess to the crime for which Anthony Porter had been sentenced to die.
The horrifying thing about this case and several others in Illinois is that the “system” did not save Porter’s life. A college journalism class investigated and found evidence that Porter was innocent and confronted the real killer. Perhaps in some cases where a condemned man ultimately walks free, you can argue the system worked. But several men on Illinois’ death row owe their lives to outside intervention.
The success of a college journalism class really has to make you wonder. Shouldn’t the police have done the same kind of research 10 years ago? Shouldn’t the defense attorneys have had the resources and interest to do the same research?
Mangeorge, in his OP, mentioned Gov. Jim Edgar. Actually, he’s out of office now and the governor who is blocking further executions is George Ryan, a tough-on-crime Republican. He’s appointing a commission to suggest improvements in the death penalty system. Already, though, the state has created a fund to help pay for competent defense attorneys and expert witnesses at the trial level in capital cases. The state Supreme Court is also considering minimum experience requirements for any lawyer who wants to handle a death penalty case.
It will be interesting to see what other ideas pop up. By the way, the idea of scrapping the death penalty entirely is not getting any serious discussion, at least not yet.
Another thought kind of weaseled its way into my head last night. It’s a given that quite a few innocent people have come close to execution and been spared at the last momment.
So why doesn’t this fall under the Constitutional protection from “Cruel and unusual punishment”? Execution has been found to not qualify, but what about facing death for something you didn’t do? Surely being on death row, fifteen minutes from death, would qualify as cruel and unusual.
Peace,
mangeorge
Well, yes, but no one is sentenced to be almost executed.
Question: If someone is executed for a crime, and it later develops that someone else committed the crime, can that person also be charged with the death of the executed? What is the charge?
Murder
Manslaughter
Negligent Homicide (didn’t intend the person’s death, but was negligent in not confessing to prevent it)
Use of a Deadly Weapon (lawyers)
Wrongful Death (civil charge, a la OJ)
WHOA, mangeorge, you ain’t gonna get off so easy! First, it is NOT a “given” that “quite a few innocent people have come close to execution and been spared.” At least, it’s not a ‘given’ until you define what you consider to be ‘quite a few,’ and we all get a chance to comment on that. Second, please provide cites and quotes for the cases of those who were “fifteen minutes from death.”
I don’t know why fortune smiles on some and lets the rest go free…
The links are there, TBone2, posted above by Arnold Winkelried. But just to simplify things I’ll state those two points a little differently.
“It’s a given that quite a few innocent people have come close to execution and been spared at the last moment”. Just for T;
Innocent people have spent time on death row.
“Surely being on death row, fifteen minutes from death, would qualify as cruel and unusual”. Just for T;
Knowing you’re going to die soon is no fun.
My point is that being sentenced to death for something you know you didn’t do would seem pretty cruel to the victim. The numbers are irrelevant to the morality of the issue.
“Well, yes, but no one is sentenced to be almost executed.”
—APB9999
Of course not. What makes the death sentence cruel is the possibility that that person may be innocent.
So, is sending an innocent person (intentionally or not) to death row cruel?
Peace,
mangeorge
The charge that most closely fits the circumstances would be criminal facilitation, but it’s doubtful a prosecution would proceed. If the State can garner a conviction on capital murder, it’s not gonna fool around with some piddley facilitation crime. Not to mention the fact that any State which puts an incontrovertably innocent man to death is going to have its hands full defending against he wrongful death action and will want to make the whole mess go away quickly.
There are many valid points stated in the previous posts, but in my opinion, developed over many years, those who commit certain crimes, murder among them, have stepped beyond the pale. Some examples are:
Murder, Intentional
Aggravated Rape
Child Molestation
Drug Dealing
Child abuse leading to death
I don’t relish the idea of my tax dollars supporting such scum in relative comfort for the rest of their days, and I like even less the concept of parole in such cases.
I think it is cruel and unusual punishment to have such a person languish on death row for many years. I do agree that an appeals process is needed, but it shouldn’t drag out like it does.
Now, having said that, I acknowledge the possibility of innocent people being executed, and I don’t like that either. We need to investigate processes that would make the judicial system even more stringently careful than it is to ascertain guilt.
VB
I could never eat a mouse raw…their little feet are probably real cold going down. :rolleyes:
I live in IL, and have followed the death-row releases. The record here is apalling. There was one case a couple of years ago where several police officers and DA employees were charged with conspiracy in putting an innocent man on death row. They claimed that this man told them of a dream he had that included many of the specifics of the murder scene known only to the police. That, along with circomstantial evidence, got him convicted.
The Chicago Tribune has had several series of articles on the death penalty, appeals process, wrongful convictions, etc. Since the death penalty has been re-instated in Illinois, more people have been found innocent while on Death Row than have been executed; over half of the capitol convictions have either later been found innocent or the sentance has been thrown out.
My solution - yes, a person is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. To give him the death penalty, he had better be guilty beyond a shadow of a doubt.
Prison is not “relative comfort”, unless you consider gang rapes and knifings as “comfort”. I have heard (and I’m sure someone will either back this up or, more likely, rip it to shreds) that the additional cost of a capitol trial and all of the appeals is more expensive than the cost of life in prison without parole.
“The large print givith, and the small print taketh away.”
Tom Waites, “Step Right Up”
I wonder where the idea came from that prison entails any level of comfort?
Anyway, I see this conversation turning to broader issues beyond the death penalty. What is or should be the function of incarceration? Is it strictly punishment? Is it rehabilitiation? Revenge? A state-enforced “time-out”? Once someone is convicted of a crime, even a heinous one, is that person’s life forever without merit or meaning? I look at someone like Leslie Van Houten, a former Manson family member who was sentenced to death (later automatically commuted to life in prison). She has metamorphosed from a ruthless and heartless killer into someone who devotes her life to charity. I recently saw footage of her in a documentary making children’s quilts for homeless shelters in a program she helped organize. Not only is she helping those children, she is helping other women caught in a revolving door prison system learn self-worth and marketable skills. She will probably be paroled in the next few years. If a Manson family killer can be rehabilitated to the point where she is fit to be released back into society, is there any life that is so far beyond redemption to justify the State’s taking that life?