List of miscarriage of justice cases
Posthumous Pardons
Risk of miscarriages of justice is one of the main arguments against the death penalty.
A recent study by Dr. Stephen Greenspan , Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Colorado, revealed that throughout American history at least 106 individuals have been granted posthumous pardons , including 12 individuals who were executed.
Tim Cole, an Army veteran, died behind bars in 1999 at age 39. He was convicted of a 1985 rape of a Texas Tech student in Lubbock. A 2008 DNA test cleared Cole and implicated convicted rapist Jerry Wayne Johnson, who confessed in several letters to court officials that date back to 1995.
Among those who were executed and later pardoned were Joe
Arridy a mentally disabled man with an IQ of 46 in Colorado (pardoned in
2011), Lena Baker in
Georgia (pardoned 2005), and four men in Illinois who were hanged for their
participation in the Haymarket
Square riot in 1886 (pardoned 1893).
Conviction
A landmark study by the United States Department of Justice and the Senate found that incorrect identification by eyewitnesses was a factor in over 70% of wrongful convictions.
From the Innocence Project:
Kenny Waters
served 18 years in prison for murder he didn't commit before DNA testing proved
his innocence. His sister, Betty Anne Waters, put herself through college and
law school in order to help with her brother's case. She worked with the
Innocence Project to bring about his exoneration in 2001.
Sadly, Waters passed away six months after his release. He was 47 years old and
had spent more than a third of his life in prison for a crime he didn't commit.
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