NCJ Number
225381
Date Published
2008
Length
23 pages
Annotation
This chapter analyzes executions that occurred in the United States between 1972 and 2000 that involved “compelling claims of factual innocence” and a comparison group of cases during the same time period in which prisoners were released from death row due to doubts about their guilt, and examines the factors involved in cases resulting in execution compared with those resulting in exoneration.
Abstract
The debate over the number and identities of those with compelling claims of factual innocence among those who have been executed is certain to continue. The research presented in this chapter is much closer to the beginning of this debate than the end. It is intended to assist in defining the issue of executions of the innocent separate from but related to the issue of wrongful convictions, in framing the debate about this issue, and in providing a list of cases meriting careful consideration and further exploration. With wrongful convictions firmly secure as a central issue in death penalty discourse, it is time to take the next logical step in the scholarly and political debates regarding wrongful convictions: identifying and examining compelling claims of innocence that resulted in execution rather than exoneration. This research identified 16 individuals executed despite compelling claims of factual innocence among the 784 executions in the 30-year period beginning with the Furman decision in June 1972. References and list of cases cited