Is that even possible in the U.S. legal system? Do courts (the only institution able to declare anyone legally not-guilty) ever take up appeal cases of persons who have already been executed? If not, then by that standard an executed person will never be exonerated by definition.
Damn good question. Can any of our legal eagles tell us whether or not the answer to the OP is “Currently legally impossible”?
It seems that I Wiki’d the wrong section, and that those executed were exonerated. Thank you for that link. Do we know if the current U.S. governments(Federal, State and Local) allow exoneration of those who have been executed?
Apparently I missed reading the final paragraph of Peter Morris’ link:
The Governor declared all that were executed to be innocent.
Hmmm… read the summary of the Coffin case. Pressure from the USA all the way down.
Plus, I am pretty sure I read several of the “please save X from death row” appeals over the years that suggested person in danger of being executed was not the main instigator or trigger-puller. Not exactly the OP’s question, but does seem to violate the sense of justice that a killer can escape the death penalty by blaming his accomplices who did not actively commit the murder, even if they are all technically guilty under the law.
You said “Despite what we see on detective shows, police are rarely motivated to find the truth. The pressure is to close the case.” Rarely. As proof you show one Canadian case from the 1950s. I bow to your superior knowledge of the motivation of thousands of police officers working on thousands of cases.
I am sure you are a professional and would not stoop to this, so no slam at you buthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarence_Brandley
No doubt there have been miscarriages of justice, especially in times and places in which race was a major factor. I am not familiar with the case and have no knowledge beyond what is written in wiki. But I refute the fact that it is important to someones career to close a case regardless of the truth. At least nowadays it takes a tremendous amount of work and several years to get someone convicted of murder. There is no profit in going after someone innocent just to close a case. Its not that simple. Even taking taking out any possibility of the officer having a conscience or being motivated by putting away the guilty, a career of attaboys for getting convictions would be wiped out by putting one innocent man away. As someone who works as detective I can tell you without a doubt there is no pressure to get a conviction regardless of the truth. In fact its nearly impossible to go forward if its not a slam dunk. Prosecutors don’t like taking chances.
Loach,
I guess NJ works a little different than here in the Death Penalty Capitol of the US(Harris County TX). There is significant pressure to solve/convict here and we have changed the laws about appeals to make it easier to execute, sadly I think it is only a matter of time before we have proof that an innocent has been executed. Cameron Todd Willingham may be the first provable case but we will see. Part of the problem is our Prosecutors are elected and any perceived weakness on the Death Penalty gets you booted out of office, I don’t think that anyone would do it intentionally anymore(like Brandley) but the pressure is enormous especially if the victim is White and Female
I’ve heard of at least one that died of natural causes while on death row, and was later exonerated. Since that was possible, Since that was possible, I can’t see why it would be impossible after execution.
I hope you are kidding.
There examples aplenty of police making up stories, prosecutors hiding evidence that could exonerate the accused, corrupt judges and so on. I am not saying they are all or even mostly corrupt but examples are not hard to come by either (and those are the ones who were caught, it is reasonable to assume many are not caught either).
Further, the vast majority of criminal cases do not go to trial (less than 5%). By far most are plea agreements and while you may say that those pleading out are only the guilty doing so because they know they are guilty to think so would be naive in the extreme.
I don’t doubt the majority of law enforcement are honest and want to do a good job (seriously, not sarcasm). But when a person appears to “fit the bill” and there is some evidence, the police are not your friend and are not there to help you or make things easier, no matter what they say in interrogation.
I suspect the majority of execution cases nowadays get such serious scrutiny, that there is unlikely to be much doubt compared to many of the railroading cases of the 60’s and earlier.
Another interestingcase to consider was the “Let him have it” case in Britain in the 1950’s.
Again, the actual triggerman gets off from the death penalty, and there is some question whether the accomplice meant for the triggerman to shoot or surrender… but they hanged him anyway.
How guilty does someone need to be to be executed? The law used to provide hanging as a sentence for stealing a loaf of bread or pickpocketing. (And stoning for fornication if we go back far enough…)
Meanwhile the judicial system is so disfunctional that many criminals can dodge serious sentences by pleading down to lesser crimes.
Actually, there is a point that many people have not understood about this. It is entirely irrelevant what the phrase “let him have it” meant.
A policeman named Faifax confronted the pair. Bentley allegedly said “let him have it” and Craig shot and wounded Fairfax. He survived.
Bentley surrendered, and was taken into custody.
Some time later, Craig shot and killed another policeman, Sidney Miles. Bentley was no longer on the scene.
So, the words “let him have it” may have been an incitement to shoot Fairfax, or they may not. It doesn’t matter. They most certainly were not an incitement to shoot Miles.
So what exactly was Bentley hanged for? Accomplice in attempted murder of Fairfax, or accomplice in some way of death of Miles, or just generally “let’s hang someone”?
Not that i can see. Got a cite or a wiki link or even a name?
Also to the others, note that the Op asks for " case in recent history "
This is a pretty meaningless factoid, as there is no legal process to appeal a conviction after the defendant is dead.
For the death of Miles.
There is, actually–to provide peace to the family of the deceased, and in the case of the death penalty to prove the death penalty doesn’t work. It would be a powerful symbolic victory for anti-capital punishment activists.
You’re obviously not entirely informed on the anti-CP movement, they are definitely interested in following through with the legal procedures necessary to exonerate someone who is deceased.
There are lots of people in the United States who have received legal exoneration after death, so the concept is not fanciful at all. It’s not entirely common, for as you said, the motivation isn’t great, but it does happen. For example in Texas Timothy Cole was convicted of rape and died of an asthma attack in prison. He was proven conclusive to have not committed the rape by DNA evidence after the fact, and an Austin court declared him legally exonerated.
Initially Rick Perry said he didn’t view the exoneration as legal (but he had no means to overrule the decision of a court), and that he would not issue a pardon (something his family wanted in addition to the court exoneration) because he was not permitted to exonerate dead men. He ended up going through with a pardon in 2010–so in Timothy Cole’s case you have a deceased person who was both exonerated by the judicial branch and pardoned by the executive branch, based on conclusive DNA evidence demonstrating factual innocence.
You can bet any amount of money you want that anti-CP activists would push for exactly the same thing to happen (and are pushing) in any case in which they believe someone who has been executed was factually innocent and they have sufficient evidence to secure an exoneration.
(I’m anti-CP but don’t consider myself an activist on any matter, just as an FYI.)
Joint enterprise. When several come together for a common purpose each may be equally guilty of murder regardless of who struck the fatal blow.
I review a number of the cases whereby anti death penalty folks have presented inaccurate case descriptions within link (1) below, inclusive of the Cameron Todd Willingham case.
These deceptions have become quite common and are a standard part of the anti death penalty campaign.
There have been 9, not 15, cases of death row releases based upon DNA exclusion.
THE DEATH PENALTY: SAVING MORE INNOCENT LIVES
Of all endeavors that put innocents at risk, is there one with a better record of sparing innocent lives than the US death penalty? Unlikely.
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The Death Penalty: Saving More Innocent Lives
ProDPinNC: The Death Penalty: Saving More Innocent Lives -
Innocents More At Risk Without Death Penalty
ProDPinNC: INNOCENTS MORE AT RISK WITHOUT DEATH PENALTY