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Willingham Case Highlights Fears of Executing Innocent People
Cameron Todd Willingham's last words were: "I have been persecuted 12 years for something I didn't do." And now, five years after he was executed by the state of Texas, Willingham is probably as close to an exoneration as he'll ever get. The blogs and news media have been filled with commentary about the revelation that Willingham was most likely innocent when he was executed, and it's renewing calls for an examination of the death penalty in this country.
In The Hill blog, John Feehery writes:
Without getting into all of the facts in this particular case, it is clear that we live with an imperfect justice system. The system makes mistakes. Wrong people are accused and convicted. Witnesses sometimes misremember the facts, and sometimes they lie for their own self-interest. Sometimes cops make mistakes, and sometimes prosecutors reach the wrong conclusions.The Los Angeles Times reports that a new study by University of California, Santa Cruz, professor Craig Haney finds that support for the death penalty among Californians is down:But the death penalty, when carried out, is always perfect. It always kills the target, and kills the target permanently. And once you kill the accused, you can't really turn back the clock. If the system turns out to be wrong, as it does on occasion, saying you are sorry doesn't do much good.
A majority of Californians still favor the death penalty, but their support has waned from 79% to 66% over the last two decades as fears of executing the wrongly convicted escalate, a researcher reported Tuesday.Jonah Lehrer offered this fascinating meditation on the injustice of Willingham's execution in the Daily Dish:...Support for the death penalty plunged to 26% when respondents were offered the alternative of guaranteed life imprisonment and the requirement that the offender work to pay restitution to victims and their families, Haney said.
These stories of a failed justice are important, and not just because they expose specific errors...Instead, I think these harrowing tales need to be told because they contradict a powerful moral intuition we all share, which can unfortunately lead us to turn a blind eye: Because we believe in justice, we ignore stories of injustice.Finally, the Philadelphia Inquirer brought the argument back to present-day by comparing Willingham's case to that of Troy Davis:
Davis' and Willingham's cases again raise strong questions about capital punishment and whether it can ever be fairly administered, especially when the defendant is poor or a minority, like Davis, and statistically more likely to get a death sentence.Davis's case was recently reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court, and sent back to a lower court for the evidentiary hearing he's been asking for all along. Hopefully Georgia will learn a lesson from Texas, and give Davis the chance at life that Willingham never had....The risk of a wrongful execution is simply too great to continue with capital punishment.
6 Comments so far
Show All"There can no longer be any doubt that an innocent person has been executed. The question now turns to how we can stop it from happening again."
Cameron Todd Willingham was executed in 2004. A new report shows that he was innocent, that the fire which killed his three young children was not an arson deliberately set by him.
Imagine that: his 3 kids burned to death. Then he is blamed for it. Then, after 12 years in prison for murdering his children, he is executed.
http://www.innocenceproject.org/Content/2149.php
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/09/07/090907fa_fact_grann
Aren't you sick of hearing people say: "Well, our criminal justice system here in the U.S.A. may not be perfect, but it's certainly the best on God's green earth!"?
Consider this: There are 96 countries where it is impossible for an innocent person to be sentenced to death and executed, and there are another 56 where it is highly unlikely. That is because there are 96 countries which have abolished the death penalty (or never had it since gaining their independence), and there are 56 others which technically have it but which, for one reason or another, have given it up in practice.
The U.S.A. is one of just 45 nations that retain this ancient barbarity (along with China, Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and other champions of human rights).
For a list of the world's 197 independent nations categorized by their death penalty status (and other information), please visit Hands Off Cain:
http://www.handsoffcain.info/bancadati/index.php?tipotema=arg&idtema=12000552
Known executions in 2008:
http://www.handsoffcain.info/bancadati/index.php?tipotema=arg&idtema=12000547
I can hear Shrub cackling.
Confusing justice and vengeance has been way too easy for way too long.
As I understand it, Mr Willingham was convicted of a crime not only of which he we manifestly innocent but which actually did not occur. The fire in which the children died was an accident. Forensic evidence brought by the prosecution was dubious at best, bogus at worst. No rebuttal evidence was brought by his defence at the trial.....a money issue? You get the defence you can afford if you get one at all. His vindication comes long after his death.....who will now pay for the death of an innocent man? The death penalty has no place in a justice system.....we seem to be less interested in justice than we are in punishment no matter what.
Whenever I entered into a debate on the death penalty and the chances of an innocent person being executed by the State..
The Inevitable retort of those in favor of keeping it on the books was that if the person who was executed was innocent of the crime for which he paid the ultimate price, s/her was very likely guilty of some other crime.
Ie the persons arrested for crimes for which the death penalty can be used are all people who are hard core thugs ANYWAYS.
We do not need it for any crime.
I read the article "actually" cited (September 3, 11:45 a.m.) -- "Trial by Fire
Did Texas execute an innocent man?" by David Grann. Compelling stuff.
The key issue in the Davis case -- I speak as an interested but not expert follower of the case -- seems to be whether Davis can be executed if his "actual innocence" is not established in a habeas corpus hearing, but reasonable doubt as to his guilt is established by new evidence that might have been available but wasn't presented at his original trial, possibly due to error by his counsel. It seems to me that overturning the rule on actual innocence would be an important step.
We could join the countries that have a death penalty but don't execute by changing the rule that juries in death penalty cases can be selected by weeding out people with scruples against the death penalty. It seems constitutionally offensive that such persons, who can't be excluded from sitting in non-capital cases, can't be jurors in capital cases. One might argue that leaving in place the possibility of execution, while changing the jury selection rule, would be reasonable because in very heinous cases, jurors opposed to the penalty could be persuaded to change their minds by the facts, or maybe by defendants who request to be executed.
Another argument in favor of allowing people who are otherwise qualified to serve as jurors in death penalty cases would be that jurors who are pro-death penalty are more likely to convict the innocent. The high proportion of death row inmates who've been released under the current stringent actual innocence rules (usually because of DNA evidence) seems to confirm this. Is there other evidence to establish it?