Sentenced to death for crimes they did not commit

[nhboy]

"Three men, three extraordinary stories. One spent 18 years in prison in Uganda for having murdered a neighbour later found to be alive. Another survived 34 years facing execution in Japan. The third became the 100th prisoner on death row to be found innocent and freed in the US.

Amnesty International brought the men together in New York before a hearing of the human rights committee of the UN tomorrow that will call for a moratorium on executions around the world as a first step towards abolishing the death penalty. It is the ultimate argument, the campaign believes - the testimony of individuals who managed to survive the system, but who came close to being killed despite their innocence."

Sentenced to death for crimes they did not commit: the men who lived to tell the tale | Special reports | Guardian Unlimited

 

[hvp05]

So they really have no new approach. Thanks...

 

[Novus Collectus]

So they really have no new approach. Thanks...

Right, the justice systems are still sentencing to death and possibly executing many innocent people with the same approach.
Time for a change, I agree.

 

[sumrtym87]

just because that one was the 100th that THEY found innocent, doesnt mean he was the 100th innocent man on death row. wonder how many innocent ones have died already!!!

 

[itsbob]

just because that one was the 100th that THEY found innocent, doesnt mean he was the 100th innocent man on death row. wonder how many innocent ones have died already!!!

Figure if there was ONE the libs would be all over it, and it would be on the cover of EVERY newspaper and magazine in the country!

When you sentence someone to death in 1985 and they are still amongst the living today, I'd say you have ample opportunity to prove your innocence, or at least wait for all the witnesses to die of natural causes so you can ask for a new trial and be found innocent.

It's not like we are dragging people out of the courtroom and into a dark alley the same day and lopping off their heads.. though that maybe a good detterent.

Ever think that we found the 100 innocents, and didn't execute them, because the system WORKS!??

 

[ImnoMensa]

I've got a better idea. We take all those who we have who have even the slightest shadow of a doubt those convicted with eyewitness accounts or circumstantial evidence,and we commute their sentence to life. We take all of those for who we have DNA evidence, those who were caught in the act, or those who are faced with undeniable evidence and admit their guilt and we take them out and shoot them tomorrow morning.

 

[kwillia]

I've got a better idea. We take all those who we have who have even the slightest shadow of a doubt those convicted with eyewitness accounts or circumstantial evidence,and we commute their sentence to life. We take all of those for who we have DNA evidence, those who were caught in the act, or those who are faced with undeniable evidence and admit their guilt and we take them out and shoot them tomorrow morning.

Bye-bye and fry, OJ...

 

[This_person]

Ever think that we found the 100 innocents, and didn't execute them, because the system WORKS!??

This is the part that so many people seem to forget. Good point.

 

[Novus Collectus]

Figure if there was ONE the libs would be all over it, and it would be on the cover of EVERY newspaper and magazine in the country!

When you sentence someone to death in 1985 and they are still amongst the living today, I'd say you have ample opportunity to prove your innocence, or at least wait for all the witnesses to die of natural causes so you can ask for a new trial and be found innocent.

It's not like we are dragging people out of the courtroom and into a dark alley the same day and lopping off their heads.. though that maybe a good detterent.

Ever think that we found the 100 innocents, and didn't execute them, because the system WORKS!??

It is extremely rare for a DA or even a judge to open a case on a dead man. In the years since DNA technology has been available (which is the way most of the innocent people on death row were exonerated), only a few dead have had their cases reoppened.
The very fact that a hundred still living people have been exonerated by things like DNA evidence is very telling that maybe a hundred innocent people were executed in the decades before DNA testing existed. This would be a logical assumption looking at this statistically.