Thursday 30 April 2015

Is it Possible to Leave Death Row Alive

A death chamber gurney

According to the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (NCADP) for every ten individuals who have been executed since 1976, one person has been set free. These, to me, are pretty shocking statistics and make me think how many innocent people have actually been wrongly executed. Below are several cases of people who have managed to be walk away from death row. 

McCollum and Brown
Leon Brown and Henry Lee McCollum 

These mentally-retarded half brothers were coerced into confessing to the murder and rape of an 11-year-old girl in 1983. Both received the death sentence, although Leon Brown later had his sentence commuted to life imprisonment. Henry Lee McCollum spent thirty years on death row before DNA evidence linked the murder to another man - who was in prison for a similar crime. In 2014, Henry Lee McCollum and Leon Brown were completely exonerated and released. Before it was found that McCollum was actually innocent, a Supreme Court judge referred to McCollum's 'crime' as the worse of the worse and the reason North Carolina still needed the death penalty. 

Anthony Graves

Anthony Graves

Anthony Graves was sentenced to death in 1994 for allegedly being an accomplice to the murders of Bobbie Davis, her daughter, Nicole and her four grandchildren. There was absolute no physical evidence found to tie Graves to the scene of the crime. In fact, his whole trial relied on the testimony of the 'other man', Robert Carter. In 2000, Carter - who had also been sentenced to death for the murders - confessed all before he was executed. He admitted he had lied about Anthony Graves' involvement. It took another six years before Graves would get a retrial when it was revealed prosecutors during the original trial had deliberately withheld evidence that was favourable to the defence. There was also evidence to show that the prosecution had used false testimony from witnesses. After 18-years in prison, 16 of which had been spent in solitrary confinement - Anthony Graves was released from prison. Today, he plays an active role in helping others potentially locked up for crimes they did not commit. He travels the country sharing his story, as well as serving on the advisory board of the TCADP. 

Randy Steidl

Randy Steidl

Convicted of the brutal murders of a newly-wed couple in 1986, Randy Steidl was sentenced to death. After spending 17-years in prison, 12 of those on death row, Steidl was exonerated of the crime and released. This was due to evidence of police misconduct and fabrication of evidence/testimony. A retrial revealed there was NO evidence to link Randy Steidl to the murders and his release was ordered. Randy Steidl has been an important voice in the movement to abolish the death penalty. He certainly played an important role in the effort to repeal the death penalty in Illionois in 2011. 

These are not all the cases, just the ones that stood out to me. Surely, the fact that there is a high number of exonerations is the sign of a flawed system. Spending any amount of time in prison when you are innocent is wrong, however there is no coming back for someone who is wrongfully executed. So what do you think? are you of the opinion that just one life lost to a 'mistake' is enough to abolish the death penalty? Or do you believe that, while mistakes will be made, it is necessary for the 'greater good'?

11 comments:

  1. What an interesting piece. Americans have long ago accepted that we more than likely have killed innocents in the death chamber. Recently posthumously exonerated George Stinney exemplifies the historical mostly religious belief in the vengeance of a "hateful god" who in the old testament decries "eye for an eye".
    But how many of those that walked away were actually cleared, there are of course the Debra Milkes (who I personally believe is guilty), and the Damien Echols (who I personally believe was not guilty). Just these two are examples of those who left stating "exonerated" and continue to be represented in the statistics, but were NEVER actually found to be innocent.
    Just food for thought about statistics and how they can and are swayed to pursue an argument agenda.

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    1. Thanks, as always, for your comment Admin. I have no doubt that these statistics are 'massaged' to fit whatever argument a person/side is trying to present. I don't believe Debra Milke is innocent either and the fact she is running around squealing miscarriage of justice is most frustrating. Her defence during trial was absymal I agree - but, as I said in the post concerning her, that does not make her innocent. I have heard of the Echols case but I don't know enough to form an opinion either way. I will be looking him up though.

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    2. Prepare to get lost, it is a case that takes more twists and turns, and so many side legal issues. You have two step fathers who have been accused, a missing bloody man from a nearby restaurant, a mother who mysteriously dies, parents who become convicts for stealing from neighbors, Dixie Chicks winning a lawsuit filed by a stepfather, Eddie Vetter from Pearl Jam hosting free concerts and then Johnny Depp pleading with Arkansas to do the right thing, right down to a prosecutor completely and utterly becoming a buffoon in yet another side lawsuit.
      The crime is grisly, the miscarriage of justice and circus around the case, it it wasn't true would be a real life comedy of errors.

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    3. Wow, Sounds like a realllllly bad movie - a shame that it was someone's life!! I am definitely going to educate myself on the case, as it sounds like something I would like to cover on the blog in the future. I may have to pick your brains before I do lol, you seem to have an unlimited knowledge on a lot of cases - including minor details. That's quite a memory!

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    4. Most of my knowledge comes from a book I am working on called "Letters from within" in which I corresponded with several death sentenced inmates in ALL states that were actively seeking executions of convicted murderers. Some of my methods to gain access to these inmates are unorthodox and as such I have been highly criticized for that. Most that I am writing about have since been executed, but the idea of the book is to first present the person convicted through their communications, allow the reader to perhaps see these people as human beings. More than what they are convicted of, and then outline the conviction. It has been 11 years in the making, tons of research on many cases. But I hope it to be something that stirs those who read it into a different mindset about the death penalty.

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    5. I would be really interested in reading your book when it is completed, it sounds like something I wouldn't be able to put down. Eleven years in research is nothing to be sniffed at, I wish you luck with its completion. I have read 'Letters from a Serial Killer' and that really got to me. As you say, reading their letters humanised them, so you saw them as a person. One was John Wayne Gacy - not a nice person at all but reading his letters made him real, rather than a monster I had read about second hand.

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  2. Admin the west of Memphis three is a fascinating case and highlights the extreme flaws in the legal system! What do you make of the Alford plea, surely just a tactic to wiggle out of having to apply an exoneration and admit how painfully wrong they were! I think the step dad committed the murders without a doubt! It's tragic on all sides

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    1. I think the Alford pleas were also a travesty of justice, but I understand why Jason Baldwin did accept the offer. The State was trying to kill his best friend, however risky, I believe a new trial would have exonerated all three. I don't feel comfortable laying blame on any of the parents until the bloody man in the nearby restaurant can be eliminated. They messed this case up so badly, shoddy police work, unqualified expert witnesses, and three dead little boys. Truly tragic for all, it is the comedy that unfolds after the original conviction that just blows your mind.

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  3. Interesting piece. I believe in the death penalty but I do believe that in this country, a lot of things are missed. I believe that a person should not be executed unless there has been DNA testing has been done and we are sure that the person has done it.

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  4. I think the evidence points to terry Hobbs, the DNA discovered at the crime scene, the affidavits from the teenage boys who were told by his relative he admitted it, to him being saw by witnesses as the last person to been seen with the boys, to him not informing police of him seeing them shortly before, to he's history of violence, and refusal of a polygraph test, to His wife even suspecting him, it's endless. It is beyond me why the blood samples collected by the disoriented black male who was seen in the bathroom of the bojangles restaurant were not immediately tested and how they could be lost so easily! This case is the most shocking by far and I believe the Alford pleas were a way for the state to get out of paying millions in compensation and avoiding admitting how much they screwed it up, but obviously they knew that if they were to go to retrial there would not be enough evidence to convict the Memphis three again

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    1. yeah, lots of twists and turns, and no doubt Byers was a viable candidate until he wasn't. I really think a conviction against anyone at this point is impossible though. The case is closed per the Alford plea. Even if the WM3 find a substantial showing of evidence it was someone else, the Alford plea cannot be "taken back". So there wouldn't even be a new trial. It is a sad reality that we will never know what happened to those three little boys, but I feel confident saying I don't think in any way shape or form the WM3 had anything to do with the murders that ruined six families, literally tearing them all apart.

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