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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: James R. Barrett who wrote (30553)	2/10/1999 1:17:00 PM
From: E	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 108807

<<<30553 Would you mind naming two or three innocent people who were executed in the past ten years and were later PROVEN innocent of the crime? >>> Re innocent people executed: Probably you just didn't think of this, but there is a problem with the concept of innocence being PROVEN after the prisoner is dead. Can you guess what it is? It is, of course, that once an individual has been executed there is very little incentive to continue investigating that crime! Certainly the prosecutor is not going to seek evidence that he or she put an innocent person to death. However, we do have some information that you can draw some mighty strong conclusions from. *There have been seventy six* people who have been released from prison, straight off death row, in the last 15 years or so.** You may remember the case of Anthony Powell, an innocent man who lived on death row in Illinois for sixteen years before his release from prison? This is a very recent case, which is why I remember it. Of course, it is not the prosecutor, or the law enforcement community, who has PROVEN Mr. Powell innocent. It was a journalism professor and his students. (This reminds me of an Alabama case, that of Walter McMillian (sp?), who was proven innocent and released from prison after six years on death row. This case stuck in my mind because this innocent man was put on death row before he was even tried! Ain't that a caution?! I wonder what color he was. I wonder if he was poor. I wonder if he had good legal representation. I don't know the answers, but I wonder about these things. In the past ten years or so, ten people in Illinois alone have been released from death row, and prison, on the grounds that they were "wrongfully committed." That is not the proof of innocence the fortunate Anthony Powell was able, with the help of the journalism class, to come up with. ("Fortunate" is a relative word; he did live on death row for sixteen years; but his PROVEN innocence was just freakish luck.) It's a good indication of something important about executions, though, for those on the 'Feelings' thread who care. <<<30556 Would you mind naming two or three people who were executed in the past ten years for a crime they committed when they were 16 years old or younger? If you can't think of any in the past ten years, try twenty.>>> I am not prepared to do a great deal of research at this point, but I did make a phonecall, and on the basis of a conversation and what I can get off my own shelves, much of which was published in the late 80's, I see, and what I remember, I can provide a few relevant facts about this subject. And if anyone would like to know where to find more information about the death penalty, PM me and I'll give you some sources for packets or bibliographies. *There have been thirteen* juvenile offenders -- meaning under 18 at the time of their crime -- executed since 1977 in this country.** (That's age 16 or 17, not younger, I feel sure.) Twelve of our states have statutes permitting execution of defendants who were 16 or younger at the time of the crime. In Mississippi there is a statute permitting execution of 13 year olds. The 'effective' date is 16, there, however. I believe the Mississippi Supreme Court ruled that 13 was too young, and made it 16. In North Carolina, under certain rare and aggravated circumstances, execution of a defendant who committed a murder at the age of 14 is permitted. Today is February 10. So it was six days ago that Sean Sellers, who committed a triple murder at the age of 16, was executed in Oklahoma.

To: James R. Barrett who wrote (30553)	2/10/1999 1:32:00 PM
From: Edwarda	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 108807

Would you mind naming two or three innocent people who were executed in the past ten years and were later PROVEN innocent of the crime? Jim, if you are shown such evidence, will it make a difference in your opinion? If so, is the turning point for you one person? Ten? I am not being sarcastic in this post (as I have been in others); I am asking seriously. At what point does the risk of executing the innocent outweigh for you the attraction of execution for capital crimes?