Quote:
Originally posted by Spanky
The case had been closely watched by both sides in the death penalty debatebecause no executed convict in the United States has ever been exonerated by scientific testing.
If the death penalty system in this country is so screwed up why is this the case?
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You've missed some extensive discusion on this issue. Here is my response:
(a) Because there is no DNA evidence available in many/most capital cases.
(b) Because in most cases the evidence is destroyed after the appellate process is exhausted (no chance to retest with more advanced technology after prisoner is killed).
(c) Because it is only in the past 15-20 years that DNA testing has advanced to the point where it is realistically possible, accurate, etc.
(d) The truth of the statement you quote is no indicator that we don't execute and haven't sometimes executed innocents.
Consider:
(i) the incidents in Illinois, where about a dozen (?) men on death row were proven actually innocent by DNA testing over a period of several years before the state suspended the death penalty.
(ii) While no executed prisoners have been proven innocent by DNA testing, two prisoners who died of natural causes on death row have been exonerated by DNA testing after their deaths. (Florida)
(iii) In VA -- the same state -- authorities recently learned that a large number of case files from the 1970s still contained specimens (hair, blood, etc.) which could be tested using DNA technology because a retired lab tech. had a habit of stapling the sample/bags to the files.
To start with, the state conducted tests on a random sampling of 10% of the files. Several men were exonerated by that testing (my memory says 4 men of 32 tested files), including some still in jail and some who served 20+ years for rape. The state has ordered that all of those samples be tested.
My memory may be off on a few of the details, but does that answer your question?
S_A_M
