|
|
Death Penalty
(From e-mail.)
This is in response to Fog's article on the death penalty. Since his figures were published, quite a few more people on death row have been exonerated after new evidence surfaced. For some, the evidence appears to have come too late, but, as Fog says, we tend not to look into these things after the fact.
For example, in Texas, which brags about it's swift justice, to date, 31 people convicted of murder have been cleared to date after DNA testing proved they couldn't have committed the murder.
The last of these, James Woodard, 55, served 27 years in prison for a rape and murder. Then DNA tests showed that someone else comitted the crime.
Even now people remain on death row after new evidence has surfaced, evidence that points to their innocence. However, often those in charge refuse to reconsider their decisions and risk revealing their own fallibility or the fallibility of the system -- not to mention undermine the "cause" of the politically popular death penalty.
The case of Greg Wilhoit, is another recent example..
|
At the sentencing," Wilhoit said, 'the judge told me I was to die by lethal injection. Then he said, 'But if that fails, we'll kill you by electrocution. If the power goes out, we'll hang you. If the rope breaks, we'll take you out back and shoot you.' 
After spending five years on death row, Wilhoit was released when a new trial overturned the verdict. A new attorney, Mark Barrett, from the Oklahoma Indigent Defense System, worked tirelessly for over four years to help correct the wrong.
Not only did Wilhoit lose his wife, but during the total of eight years involved, he he lost the chance to raise his two daughters, who were made to believe that their father murdered their mother.
Because of his experience Wilhoit can't hold a job, so he must live on social security. Wilhoit has not been compensated for the error, not has anyone even apologized for robbing him of these years.
In this video from YouTube, a former law enforcement official and a person who lost her brother in a murder, testified in California about the death penalty.
© 2008, All Rights Reserved
