> Guilty Until Proven Innocent
> The U. S. executes people regardless of their
> innocence.
>
> a.. Twenty three (23) innocent people have been
> mistakenly executed this
> century.
> b.. Each year, approximately 4.5 people are
> convicted of capital crimes
> who are actually innocent.
> c.. Over sixty nine people have been released since
> 1972 as a result of
> being wrongly convicted. That is more than one
> wrongly convicted person for
> every hundred people on death row.
> Cases of mistaken guilt aren't as rare as one may
> think.
>
>
> Virginia executed Joseph O'Dell on July 23, 1997
> despite the existence of
> DNA evidence that could have proved O'Dell's
> innocence. The courts refused
> to consider this new evidence because Virginia law
> says that any evidence
> found after 21 days is
> inadmissible in proving the innocence of a convicted
> person.
>
> Texas refused to give Robert Nelson Drew a new
> hearing even after another
> man signed an affidavit in which he confessed to the
> murder and exonerated
> Drew. Texas executed Drew on August 2, 1994.
>
> Florida executed Willie Darden for a crime he
> couldn't have committed. The
> conviction was based on a gun that could in no way
> be traced to Willie. Key
> witnesses were not allowed to testify in the case.
> The person who identified
> Willie in a line up admitted that all blacks looked
> alike to her. Willie was
> the only black person in the line-up. Supreme Court
> Justice Blackmun noted,
> "If ever a man received an unfair trial, Darden
> did."
>
> "Perhaps the bleakest fact of all is that the death
> penalty is imposed not
> only in a freakish and discriminatory manner, but
> also in some cases upon
> defendants who are actually innocent."
> Some succeed because they were destined to,
> but most succeed because they were determined to!
>
> "To be silent in the face of injustice is to be an
> accomplice to evil. I will
> not be silent."