Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/5/84; site umn-cs.UUCP Path: utzoo!lsuc!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ihnp4!stolaf!umn-cs!chaiklin From: chaiklin@umn-cs.UUCP (Seth Chaiklin) Newsgroups: net.politics Subject: Death of Innocents Message-ID: <831@umn-cs.UUCP> Date: Tue, 29-Oct-85 23:18:20 EST Article-I.D.: umn-cs.831 Posted: Tue Oct 29 23:18:20 1985 Date-Received: Fri, 8-Nov-85 08:49:53 EST References: <343@unc.unc.UUCP> <903@abnji.UUCP> <1559@hammer.UUCP> Reply-To: chaiklin@umn-cs.UUCP (Seth Chaiklin) Organization: Computer Science Dept., U of Minn, Mpls, MN Lines: 72 <827@umn-cs.UUCP> Organization: Computer Science Dept, U of Minnesota Xref: burl net.flame:7095 net.politics:7555 Summary: Evidence for actual (or almost) capital punishment of innocent people > From: (goodrum@unc.UUCP) Cloyd Goodrum III asks: [Who was executed in the United States after trial by jury, even though innocent?]In conversations with people here, I have been told that Maine, Wisconsin, and Rhode Island all abolished their death penalties after it was discovered that innocent people were executed. Also, there was a recent case in Florida where the executed man had a good abili--his employer claimed that the man was at work 300 miles away at the time of the crime--but the police suppressed this evidence in the trial. The Minnesota Civil Liberties Union just moved their office and their material is still in boxes, so I cannot cite specific sources. However, Henry Schwarzchild, who is the Director of the American Civil Liberties Union's National Prison Project (Tel: 212-944-9800) is supposed to be able to provide this information readily. Perhaps a netter in New York City would be willing to call and post the results to the net? Two books discuss a number of cases in which people were sentenced to death, but were subsequently released (sometimes after several years had passed) when it was discovered that they were innocent. The references are: Bedau, Hugo (Ed.) (1982). The death penalty in America (3rd ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. Black, Charles L. (1981). Capital punishment (2nd ed.). New York: Norton. Finally, here something from Amnesty International: "Since 1900 in the United States an average of one convicted murderer per year was later found innocent. [Also cited in "Surprising Facts About The Death Penalty," available from Institute for Southern Studies, PO Box 531, Durham, NC 27702 --SC] The actual number who have been unjustly executed can never be known. Freddie Pitts and Wilbert Lee were lucky, but not before they had spent 12 years in jail, most of them under sentence of death, for the murder of two white gas station attendants in Florida. The two black men were accused of committing the murders, but later the key witness against them withdrew her testimony and another man confessed to the crime. In 1975 the two innocent men were released. They would have been dead already if their appeals had not by chance run out during a temporary, court-imposed moratorium on executions. Timothy Evans was not as lucky. The British people's shock at discovering that this innocent man had been executed was a major reason for the abolition of capital punishment in Great Britain." Excerpted from: "The Death Penalty: Cruel & Inhuman Punishment" Amnesty International USA, 322 Eighth Ave, NY, NY 10001 Seth Chaiklin ...ihnp4!umn-cs!chaiklin chaiklin%umn-cs@csnet-relay