Nancy and I were horrified to learn what many have known for some time. (...) It is likely that America has executed people who are completely innocent of the crimes for which they were put to death. More innocent people will die as long we use this deeply flawed system. Jim Petro and his wife Nancy Petro are co-authors of False Justice: Eight Myths that Convict the Innocent.

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Politicians going after Republican votes know from the polls that opposing capital punishment is a career-ending decision. But, a growing group of conservatives say it's time to reject a policy that they describe as an anti-life intrusion by big government. Is this the future of conservative politics?
Writing in the Boston Globe, Leon Neyfakh profiles activists across the country who have come to the conclusion that execution by the state is an affront to the core principles that conservatives claim to espouse.
Among them is Marc Hyden, who grew up in a Southern family of Republican voters, and took it for granted that being pro-death penalty was a bedrock belief. Previously a Florida field representative for the NRA, Hyden is now an organizer at Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty:What finally changed Hyden's mind, he says today, was encountering criminology data suggesting that the death penalty does not serve as a meaningful deterrent to would-be criminals. "Deterrence was the last thing I had to cling to," Hyden said. "I figured, even if it's inconsistent with fiscal conservatism, even if it's inconsistent with pro-life policies and limited government, we can save lives by deterring future murderers. And then I saw several studies that showed that's patently false."
Hyden's organization also discusses the implications of convictions in the DNA era, and debunks some popular myths about innocence - Read full article at io9

According to a new peer-reviewed study published in the National Academy of Sciences, 1 in 25 people sentenced to death in the United States from 1973 - 2004 were erroneously convicted.
Researchers concluded that "most innocent defendants who have been sentenced to death have not been exonerated." Researchers also stated "with an error rate at trial over 4 percent, it is all but certain that several of the 1,320 defendants executed since 1977 were innocent."


Read article in San Jose Mercury News