Capital verdicts are often reversed due to inadequate counsel and condemned innocents

Evidence

In part, this has to do with the quality of legal representation in capital cases. Some states have capital defender offices where attorneys specialize in death-penalty cases, but many do not, including several Southern states that send many offenders to death row. Beyond the question of legal errors, there is evidence that innocent persons have been condemned and sometimes executed. Since 1976, more than 160 people have been exonerated and freed from death row. The concern has led to action in some states. In Illinois, following the exoneration of a condemned man 2 days before his scheduled execution, Governor George Ryan declared a moratorium on executions; and 2 days before leaving office in 2003, he declared that the death penalty in Illinois was “fraught with error” and commuted the sentences of all 167 death row inmates to “life” terms. In Texas, a 2012 report that an innocent man may have been executed led former Governor Mark White to call for reform of criminal investigations and trials in the state, urging that “if we are going to continue to execute individuals, we must be absolutely certain of those individuals’ guilt.” However, proponents of the death penalty view these exonerations differently, arguing that the detection of errors in these cases shows that the system works, detecting problems before offenders are executed. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 2050

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to earlier chapters on the exclusionary rule and capital punishment standards (ch93 on bifurcated capital trials), and to the Gregg-era capital litigation ch92. — connects to: Unequal legal representation raises the risk of convicting the innocent. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 722; Courts-appointed private counsel systematically underprepared criminal defenses. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 723; Most capital convictions are overturned after roughly nine years due to serious errors — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 2086 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Sixty-eight percent of capital convictions contain serious reversible flaws. #corroborates (0.85) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2085
• Most capital convictions are overturned after roughly nine years due to serious errors #corroborates (0.82) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2086
• The death penalty fails through innocent executions, arbitrariness, and racial discrimination #complicates (0.74) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2083
• Large jury verdicts are routinely reduced or overturned on appeal #complicates (0.72) — Jonathan Harr, A Civil Action, 2735