How many innocent people have been killed via the death penalty?

Great Debates
1

On another message board of which I’m a member, here’s an example of a recent post:

[I am iampunha, obviously]

Iampunha sez: One of the biggest reasons I’m anti-death penalty is that entirely too many innocent people have been killed. The other big reason is that I don’t think any human is born with the innate right to kill another. That it happens doesn’t change that fact.

Stockemup counters with:
Since you say many, I believe that to be in the double figures at a minimum, so I will give you a very simple challenge. Name FIVE people who were executed and later found beyond a reasonable doubt to be innocent.

So how about it? Can we come up with five?

I have two in mind (Jesus and Joan of Arc) but if other more obvious examples exist, I’d love to hear them!

Thanks for your help.

2

I think that the five might be taken more seriously if they are modern-day examples. Wasn’t Jesus executed for being an enemy of the state, which he most certainly was? :slight_smile:

Wow. Good question. Does the Innocence Project have a website? I know they have used DNA to drive the retrials or aquittals of several death row inmates.

3

From whhat I understand, EJsGirl, Jesus was arrested because of falsely-attributed things, and for being a political threat to Caesar, and for basically annoying thee bejeezus out of the Romans.

4

OK, the original Innocence Project is at Cardozo School of Law. They have used DNA evidence & technology to assist in 36 convictions being reversed or overturned.

I don’t know how many of these might have been death penalty cases, nor have I found out whether they have proven any AFTER THE FACT, which would fit the OP better.

There are several Innocence Projects up & running, mostly through law schools.

5

hijack-

Jesus was a rabble rouser, a political threat, and an all-around scary bastard, as far as the rulers at the time were concerned. There was hardly a law he didn’t challenge the validity of, and for God’s sake, he hung out with lepers, hookers & tax collectors! Romans seemed to have no sense of humor about these things!

end hijack-

6

Part of the problem is that once some one HAS been executed, people stop looking for evidence.

And, as far as conclusive proof of innocence, that’s pretty tough to come up with. in the book "actual innocence’ there were many examples where even after DNA evidence was submitted, the prosecution merely changed their view of the crime. (“well, then some one else also raped her, that doesn’t prove he DIDN’T”.)

And, unfortunately, even all the cases that HAVE been shown, the pro death penalty folks say “see, the system worked, the person was released”, ignoring the years and years the person remained on death row, (and especially ironic given the stampede to add laws restricting death penalty appeals).

I do recommend the book, by the way.

7

Stockemup is using a couple of debating techniques on you. First, it is almost impossible to prove a person’s innocence beyond a reasonable doubt. In any case, he is switching the burden to you. Nobody needs to prove innocence beyond a reasonable doubt, guilt must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. He needs to be able to show that the executed were guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. If you raise this point, I bet he’ll say the fact the person was convicted shows they were guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. This discounts bias, poor advocacy, etc. and assumes that the justice system is perfect. It’s a faulty argument, but it is used a lot.

Second, as wring pointed out, once somebody is executed, there is little effort to find out if they were innocent.

And, as one example, it is becoming more and more evident that Bruno Hauptmann (who was executed for allegedly killing the Lindbergh baby) was innocent.

8

From Justice Center Web Site, University of Alaska, Anchorage: Executing the Innocent Executing the Innocent

click on the link for
«”Some Twentieth Century Erroneous Convictions”: by Michael L. Radelet.
From Michael L. Radelet, Hugo Adam Bedau, and Constance Putnam, In Spite of Innocence: Erroneous Convictions in Capital Cases (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1992) and Bedau & Radelet, “Miscarriages of Justice in Potentially Capital Cases,” Stanford Law Review 40 (1987). Presents case information on 24 men executed for crimes of which they were almost certainly innocent.»

You will see the list of the following cases (I’m only listing the first six, you can read about others at the link.)

Adams, James (black). 1974. Florida. convicted of first-degree murder, sentenced to death, executed in 1984. (Adams identified by witness; witness angry at Adams for allegedly dating his wife; another witness who heard a voice and saw someone fleeing said voice was a woman’s and day after stated that the fleeing person was definitely not Adams; hair clutched in victim’s hand did not match Adams’ hair).

Anderson, William Henry (black). 1945. Florida. convicted of the rape of a white woman, sentenced to death, executed in 1945 without any appeal. Anderson’s sister and a co-worker claimed Anderson and victim had been consensually intimate for several months; no resistance, screaming, or use of available weapon (a gun) by the woman to resist Anderson’s advances.

Appelgate, Everett (white). 1936. New York. convicted of murder of his wife along with Frances Q. Creighton; executed in 1936. Creighton had previously been tried and acquitted for similar murders a dozen years previously. She testified that that she murdered Appelgate’s wife at his instigation, and during investigation confessed to one of the previous murders. No evidence against Appelgate except Frances Creighton’s unsupported word. Appelgate had no previous criminal record.

Bambrick, Thomas (white). 1915. New York. convicted of murder; sentenced to death; executed in 1916. Warden Thomas Mott Osborne and prison chaplain later discovered evidence that convinced them that Bambrick was innocent.

Becker, Charles, and Frank (“Dago”) Cirofici (both white).1912. New York. convicted of murder; Cirofici was executed in 1914 and Becker in 1915. Victim Rosenthal was a gambling-house owner. Becker had earlier made the gambling world angry because of his vigorous work in suppressing their activities. He was convicted largely on the testimony of gamblers and ex-convicts in the glare of extensive newspaper publicity about police corruption. The then warden of Sing Sing prison, James Clancy, allegedly believed that two of the executed gunmen were innocent.

Collins, Roosevelt (black). 1937. Alabama. convicted of rape, sentenced to death, and executed in 1937. He testified that the victim (white) had consented. Collins was almost lynched and received only a perfunctory defense. Subsequent interviews with several jurors revealed that although they believed the act was consensual, they also thought that Wilson deserved death simply for “messin’ around” with a white woman. Even the judge, off the record, admitted his belief that Collins was telling the truth.

9

Here is a better link to the above information.
http://sun.soci.niu.edu/~critcrim/wrong/mike.list
Though to me it would be more credible if it did not include Hauptmann.

10

Thanks to all for the help:) Were my brain actually functioning properly right now, and were this internet connection the one I was promised, this debate would be over.

11

Hey, everyone is guilty of something. But, I’d add Marguerite Porete to the initial list in the OP.

12

I read the link, thanx puddle, but it sounds to me like many of these people would never have been retried or anything, even if they got life instead of death, especially a couple of those southern blacks.

13

how about socrates, thomas moore, and anne bolyne (sp?). but not joan of arc, though. she was a heretic. uppity bitch.

-b

14

Hey, what about good ol’ Sacco and Vanzetti? The most notorious case of railroaded execution in the whole 20th century.

In the face of flimsy evidence, the judge said he didn’t care if they were innocent, the fact that he didn’t like their political views was enough excuse to execute them. Also, in those days, Italians were considered nonwhite and an inferior subspecies, therefore they were worthy of being killed with no qualms.

Re-examination of the evidence since then has suggested that whlie Vanzetti may have had some complicity in the crime, Sacco was almost certainly innocent.

15

Was she the heretic, or were the people who killed her the heretics? One person’s orthodoxy is always another person’s heresy.

16

iampunha, I realize that you intended this to be a factual question, and it would be, except for the matter of innocence. There’s really no absolute definition for that (Jesus and St. Joan of Arc certainly were rabble-rousers… Is that a bad thing? Is it bad enough to execute them?), so there’s no real way to answer the OP factually. Add in all the controversy surrounding the issue of capital punishment, and this thread is really better suited for Great Debates.

17

Actually, Chronos, IMO the OP has been answered factually . . . you may feel free to disagree and send this on the GD, if you like:)

18

I thought he was sentenced to commit suicide. (I know, plenty of WTF’s abound here). The way it was explained in my History class, he was so dedicated to his polis (“Athens made me what I am” or something like that) that he voluntarily took his own life, because the Athens court thought he should.

Also, that was more than two millenia ago, so I don’t think it’d be taken seriously as a valid example :smiley:

I imagine that you’d want examples that are “proven” innocent by an unbiased source (for example, “proof” coming from the victim’s family should be taken with a grain of salt). However, I don’t doubt that you’ll be able to find many examples of people who were thought to be innocent prior to their execution…

19

There was a study, brought up in one of the not so old death penalty great debates- i think the number was something like 70 or so, in the 20th century, in the USA. However, by far the largest majority were black men, who were victems of “legalized lynchings” in the Pre-WWII South.

I agree with Puddleglum- ol Hauptmann, even if he was not the actual kidnapper, was certainly a confederate of some sort- but it does appear he was left ‘holding the bag’.

Altho even 70 is far too many, there are none that can be shown in the last decade, and very few since the 50’s. And sometimes folks do NOT 'stop looking"- the son of that doctor who was convicted of killing his wife (they loosly based “the Fugitive” on his case) was recently in court trying to get his fathers conviction over turned.

Note that in that same GD another poster listed a study in the Columbia law Review, which showed that in 1990>1994 some 824 murders were done by 810 men who had ALREADY been convicted of murder. Now, even saying that that period was very high, that would indicate that maybe some eight THOUSAND folks (altho, a strict mathematical model would indicate TWENTY thousand) were murdered by convicted Killers in the 20th century- and that another study showed that we executed in error, some 70. Thus, for every person we execute in error, there are (at least) 100 innocents (maybe 250) murdered by killers who were not executed as they should have been. Well, I know some who would rather have “100 guilty go free, rather than one innocent be punished”, but myself, I would rather one innocent be excecuted, to prevent the murder of 100.

20

Had the UK retained the death penalty then certainly the Birmingham Six and the Guildford Four would have been executed. Both relate to IRA bombing campaigns in the 70’s. All convictions in these cases were comprehensively overturned in light of new forensic techniques.