|
Testimony of Reggie Griffin and attorney on how wrongful convictions can happen. To date 144 prisoners have been exonerated and 7 have been executed and then pardoned posthumously. President Obama recently declared in a press conference with Angela Merkel that he thought that "we do have to, as a society, ask ourselves some difficult and profound questions around these issues", while reaffirming his belief the death penalty is an appropriate punishment for certain crimes". He added: "Racial bias. Uneven application of the death penalty. Situations in which there were individuals on death row who later on were discovered to have been innocent because of exculpatory evidence - all these I think do raise significant questions about how the death penalty is being applied,"
Whilst there will be always people to think that Clayton Lockett was "a rapist murderer, not a victim" of the botched execution, and that "he got off easy" compared to his victim, we should not forget that there are currently a significant number of prisoners on death row who might be facing execution, whilst possibly innocent. A recent study found there may be as much as 4% of innocent prisoners currently on death row in the USA - a conservative number according to some. That is to say: Over 100 people who not only may die whilst being innocent, but also, over 100 people who could die in a botched execution, such as the one which happened to Clayton Lockett. Who will support the execution of an innocent man - And who will support the botched execution of an innocent man?  A new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has found about one in 25 people imprisoned under a death sentence is likely innocent. 1320 prisoners were sentenced to death since 1977 – the research indicates several were almost certainly innocent.
Time for a moratorium - Please join the Save Innocents campaign Read more 8300 prisoners have been sentenced to death in the USA between 1973 and 2011.
However over 47% of prisoners sentenced to death have been removed from death row, mainly because their sentence or their conviction has been overturned, or their sentence has been commuted. In North Carolina, where the death penalty costs over $11M/year, 60% of prisoners sentenced to death have been removed from death row. This raises one question: Why spend so much money to sentence people to death, if their conviction is then going to be the overturned - Instead of sentencing people to death, shouldn't states rather concentrate the monies on crime prevention? For perspective, nearly 70% of the prisoners landing on death row have had prior felony convictions. If efforts had been put on crime prevention, there is perhaps a chance that those prisoners would not have reoffended. Read more 
Rodney Reed has always maintained his innocence and now an execution date for 11/19/14 - His legal team is still actively investigating his case. Please forward this link to anyone you might know in Giddings/Smithville/Bastrop, Texas http://www.save-innocents.com/save-rodney-reed.html Or organise screenings of the State vs Reed documentary in your university and elsewhere in TX (It's on the page and on Youtube) Rodney Reed has a large family as well as many friends who love him and would be devastated if he were executed. Please help locate new evidence if you can, you may help avoid a miscarraige of justice. 
|
