Innocence

Since 1973, 185 people have been exonerated from death row after evidence emerged of their innocence. That’s approximately one innocent person exonerated for every eight executions. Three of those 185 people, three are from Tennessee, plus Tennessee also has an additional case, that of Ndume Olatushani, who was released on an Alford Plea after evidence revealed that he had been sentenced to die for a crime he did not commit.

In February 2021, the Death Penalty Information Center released a special report entitled, “The Innocence Epidemic,” that looked more closely into death-row exonerations in the U.S. in the years since the Supreme Court ruled in Furman v. Georgia in 1972 that the death penalty as then administered was unconstitutionally arbitrary and capricious. You can find that report at https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/facts-and-research/dpic-reports/dpic-special-report-the-innocence-epidemic

Despite the best intentions, we can’t be right 100% of the time

• DNA exonerations have been a window into all the things that can go wrong in a murder case. They have revealed that cases are often riddled with problems like mistaken eyewitnesses, incompetent lawyers, shoddy forensics, unreliable jailhouse snitches, and coerced confessions.
• DNA by itself cannot solve these problems. DNA evidence exists in less than 15% of criminal cases – far fewer than one would think from watching TV crime shows like CSI.
• Of the 375 exonerations for any crimes involving DNA, 21 of those individuals served time on death row (6%)
• Contrary to popular belief, the appeals process is not designed to catch many of these mistakes. These exonerations came only because of the extraordinary efforts of people working outside the system – pro bono lawyers, family members, even students.

Innocent people have spent decades on death row, or come within hours of execution, before the truth came out. Cutting appeals will only increase the risk that an innocent person will be executed.

Ray Krone was sentenced to death in Arizona in 1992. He spent 10 years in prison, with 3 of those spent on death row. In 2002, he became the 100th man to be exonerated after being given a death sentence, and he now lives in Tennessee. 

Factors leading to wrongful convictions include:

• Inadequate defense
• Police and Prosecutorial misconduct
• Perjured testimony and mistaken eyewitness testimony
• Tainted jailhouse testimony
• Suppression of mitigating evidence and misinterpretation of evidence
• Death qualified juries
• Lack of or unreliable eyewitness testimony

Though death penalty cases may take decades to complete, much of this time is spent waiting for counsel to be appointed or for the courts to review the case, and this review is frequently limited to the trial record. This also means that the appellate courts may not review critical facts such as new evidence of innocence, prosecutorial or police misconduct, the failings of the defense attorney, or new information on the individual’s background or mental health history that may have influenced the jury. Because the courts often emphasize finality over fairness and accuracy, the citizens of Tennessee cannot have confidence that the administration of the death penalty will not result in the execution of an innocent person.