201 wrongful convictions

This is why I don't support the death penalty, however much some people may deserve it:

A man who spent 19 years in jail for the murder of two children will be exonerated formally in July, putting the number of inmates in America cleared by DNA evidence at more than 200.

Byron Halsey, who narrowly avoided the death penalty when he was convicted in 1988 of the sexual assault and murder of a girl, 7, and a boy, 8, had his conviction thrown out by a judge last week after DNA evidence pointed to another man as the killer.

Mr Halsey’s exoneration means that since the first American inmate was cleared by DNA evidence in 1989 another 200 have now been proven to be convicted wrongfully, according to the Innocence Project, a New York legal charity that pioneered the use of DNA analysis.

[...]

Remarkably, a quarter of those now proved innocent confessed, and 4 per cent pleaded guilty.

Damian P.

Posted by damian at May 23, 2007 06:49 AM