The Post has an editorial on the death penalty this morning. Apparently we've reached a milestone.
100 Death Penalty Errors
Monday, April 15, 2002; Page A20
RAY KRONE left an Arizona prison last week after more than 10 years behind bars -- three of them on death row -- for a murder he didn't commit. Mr. Krone, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, is the 100th person since 1973 to be freed from prison after having been sentenced to death. Not all these people are innocent of the crimes for which they were condemned, but many are, including Mr. Krone, who is the 12th death row inmate to be cleared by DNA testing. These error rates include only those mistakes that were detected and corrected before the condemned was put to death. Nobody knows how many death sentences have led to the execution of innocent people. If for no other reason, the death penalty ought to be abolished.
Mr. Krone's case is fairly typical of wrongful convictions. The case against him included some circumstantial evidence combined with what seemed powerful forensic science: testimony that bite marks on the victim's body matched his teeth. The evidence implicating Mr. Krone, while far from overpowering, was strong enough to convict him and then, when his initial conviction was thrown out, to convict him again. (He was sentenced to life in prison the second time.) People have been executed on the strength of records less compelling than the one that implicated Mr. Krone. Yet the DNA tests indicated a 1.3 quadrillion to one likelihood that the DNA left at the scene was from another prisoner, named Kenneth Phillips. Once again it becomes clear that prosecutors and juries can be absolutely sure they've got the right man -- and be absolutely wrong. In the face of this knowledge, it takes a lot of arrogance to permit a penalty that cannot be undone.
A decade in prison cannot be returned, but Mr. Krone is at least alive. And while true compensation is impossible, it can be attempted. Mr. Krone's case, a gross injustice in its own right, is the latest reminder that our system would tolerate -- and probably does tolerate -- the ultimate injustice. It should not continue to do so.
© 2002 The Washington Post Company |
