wrongful execution

Wrongful execution is a miscarriage of justice occurring when an innocent person is put to death by capital punishment, the "death penalty". The possibility of wrongful executions is one of the arguments presented by the opponents of capital punishment; other arguments include failing to deter crime more than life imprisonment, violating human rights, and discriminating against minorities and the poor.^[1][2][3]

Examples

There are numerous persons who have been heralded as innocent victims of the death penalty[1], persons who, if their cases were able to be reopened, might be declared innocent or at least not guilty due to lack of solid evidence. Of the many cases, one of the most trumpeted is the execution of Jesse Tafero. Tafero was convicted along with an accomplice, Sonia Jacobs, of murdering two people in 1976, both were sentenced to death based primarily on the testimony of a third person, Walter Rhodes, who was an accessory to the crime and testified against the pair in exchange for a lighter sentence. Jacobs got help from a friend who worked to release her and in 1981 her sentence was commuted. In 1982, Rhodes recanted his testimony and claimed full responsibility for the crime. Despite this admission and his own protestations, Tafero was executed in 1990, but in 1992 the conviction against Jacobs was quashed and the state did not have enough evidence to retry her. It has been presumed that the same evidence was used against Tafero, who presumably would have been released as well.[2]

Wayne Felker is another individual cited as an innocent victim of execution. Felker was a suspect in the disappearance of a woman in 1981 and was under police surveillance for 2 weeks prior to the body being found. The autopsy was conducted by an unqualified technician, and the results were changed to show the death occurring before the surveillance began. After Felker's conviction, his lawyers presented testimony by forensics experts that that the body couldn't have been dead more than 3 days when found, a stack of evidence was found hidden by the prosecution that wasn't presented in court including DNA evidence that might have exonerated Felker or cast doubt on his guilt, and there was even the signed confession of another suspect in the paperwork, but despite all this, Felker was executed in 1996.[3] In 2000, his case was reopened as the 1st executed person to have DNA testing used to prove innocence after execution. Although the tests were ruled inconclusive as to innocence or guilt, this alone might have been enough to exonerate him, and coupled with the other testimony and mishandling of evidence would have at least surely led to a new trial.[4]

Exonerations and pardons

Newly-available DNA evidence has allowed the exoneration of more than one person per year since 1992 [5] in the U.S., but DNA evidence is only available in a fraction of capital cases.

In the UK reviews prompted by the Criminal Cases Review Commission have resulted in one pardon and three exonerations for people executed between 1950 and 1953 (when the execution rate in England and Wales averaged 17 per year), with compensation being paid. Timothy Evans was granted a posthumous free pardon in 1966. Mahmood Hussein Mattan was convicted in 1953, but had his conviction quashed in 1998. George Kelly was hanged at Liverpool in 1950, but had his conviction quashed by the Court of Appeal in June 2003. Derek Bentley had his conviction quashed in 1998 with the appeal trial judge noting the original trial judge had denied the defendant "the fair trial which is the birthright of every British citizen".

See also: Capital punishment debate#Wrongful convictions

In popular culture

Wrongful execution is the main plot of the 2003 film The Life of David Gale, directed by Alan Parker and starring Kevin Spacey, Kate Winslet and Laura Linney. This theme is also the backbone the oscar nominated film The Green Mile. The TV series Prison Break's main characters are motivated because they are trying to prevent a wrongful execution.

In the movie and musical Chicago, the Russian woman gets executed even though she is the only innocent prisoner.

References

See Also

• Death Penalty Information Center Statistics and studies of deterrence and economic and racial bias.
• Justice:Denied magazine includes stories of innocent people who have been executed.
• Database of innocent convicted people includes 150 wrongfully executed.

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