Source: The Washington Post - Read full article by Brandon Garrett here
The American death penalty has a big innocence problem, and it is not going away.(...)
Today, death sentences and executions are fading fast and one might think that we could limit the death penalty to the cases where we are sure that the person actually did it, with “it” being a murder serious enough to warrant the death penalty. Only 20 people were executed in 2016 and only 31 people were sentenced to death. Yet serious claims of innocence and unreliable evidence persist.
The evidence in death penalty cases is not always very strong. After all, in many murders, there are no surviving witnesses. Unfortunately, as a result, police sometimes cut corners to try to solve high-profile homicides, by relying on unreliable jailhouse informants or by coercing confessions from mentally ill individuals.
Read more on famous innocence cases; current claims of innocence on death row in the USA and Prisoners executed but possibly innocent
The American death penalty has a big innocence problem, and it is not going away.(...)
Today, death sentences and executions are fading fast and one might think that we could limit the death penalty to the cases where we are sure that the person actually did it, with “it” being a murder serious enough to warrant the death penalty. Only 20 people were executed in 2016 and only 31 people were sentenced to death. Yet serious claims of innocence and unreliable evidence persist.
The evidence in death penalty cases is not always very strong. After all, in many murders, there are no surviving witnesses. Unfortunately, as a result, police sometimes cut corners to try to solve high-profile homicides, by relying on unreliable jailhouse informants or by coercing confessions from mentally ill individuals.
Read more on famous innocence cases; current claims of innocence on death row in the USA and Prisoners executed but possibly innocent
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