Watch: Myth #1 - Innocent people are not executed

MYTH

Only guilty prisoners are sent to their death.

"Reversal of an erroneous conviction demonstrates not the failure of the system but its success" 

- Justice A. Scalia

FACT

Professionals in the justice system know that innocent people have been executed.

"20 years spent on death row before exoneration shows a failure of the system, not its success." - Marc Callcut

In the absence of any official study, Reprieve believes that over 300 innocent people may be on death row in the USA today. There may be thousands more who have been wrongfully convicted and awaiting execution elsewhere in the world.

USA

Since 1973, 138 people have been sentenced to death in the US, then later exonerated.  1, 227 individuals have been found guilty and executed, suggesting a rate of wrongful convictions of 11.2% (1 exoneration for every 8.8 executions). 

• Cameron Todd Willingham is widely recognized as the first "officially" innocent person executed in the US. He was convicted of arson resulting in the deaths of his 2-year-old daughter and 1-year-old twins.  Leading arson experts agree that the “finding of arson could not be sustained”.  Willingham was executed in 2004 by lethal injection.

• In Texas, Reverend Caroll Pickett who worked as a death row chaplain for 15 years said, “Out of the 95 inmates that were executed, I believe 15 were innocent” (source: Victoria advocate).  Whilst 3 out of 4 Texans support the death penalty, 65% also believe the state has executed innocent people. (Scripps Howard Texas poll, Feb 2003, 1000 people interviewed)

• In Louisiana, Clive Stafford Smith and his team proved that the state wrongfully charged people 73.4% of the time (126 out of 171 cases).  Clive Stafford Smith said:

“One of the executions I witnessed was one of an innocent man: Edward Earl Johnson, who was executed in a Mississipi gas chamber in 1987”.   Many amongst the correctional officers believed in Edward’s innocence."

Other Reprieve death row clients have maintained their innocence: Kris Maharaj, Kenny Richey, Ryan Matthews, Neil Revill, Linda Carty.

• Even Chief Justices believe that innocent people have been executed.  Harry Foggle, Chief Justice of VI Judicial Circuit, Florida has said: 

“In my own experience, I know of four persons convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to death who later were found to be innocent."

• Illinois Governor George Ryan appointed a 14-member commission on capital punishment to examine Illinois's death penalty.  He declared the nation's first moratorium on executions. The Governor commented that his state's death penalty was fraught with error, noting: 

"The Illinois capital punishment system is] so fraught with error and has come so close to the ultimate nightmare: the state's taking of innocent life."

To read tragic stories of exonerated prisoners, click here.

In the rest of the world, thousands of innocent people are executed.

China

With 1,712 executions in 2008, China kills more prisoners than the rest of the world put together. Thousands of people are executed by a dysfunctional criminal justice system.

A lawyer in China has said:

“It is painful being a lawyer in China.  99.99% of those accused of a crime and face the death penalty are found guilty and executed. Lawyers are no use at all. In every death penalty case that I defended, all my clients were executed."

Families are left with a sense of helplessness and anger towards the state who killed their loved ones. Sometimes the family is not even informed of the execution.

Singapore is the world’s leading country for use of death penalty per capita, with one hanging every 9 days. There are no juries, with a small group of judges making the final decision.  People are hung without fair trials. When the Singapore Prime Minister, Goh Chok Tong was asked in 2003 about the execution rates, he stated: 

“I’ve got more important things to worry about”.

Japan

To date, only 4 death row prisoners have been exonerated.  The process of finding their innocence took 28 to 34 years.

There were 53 death row prisoners in Japan at the end of December 2000. Among them, 25 people claimed they were totally innocent, or partly innocent, of the charges against them and were making appeals for retrial.

Even in cases where journalists agree there has been a miscarriage of justice, the door to retrial will not open.

Useful links: Death Penalty Information Center

Interesting read: Why innocent people confess to crimes they did not commit? (New York Times, 2010)

Back to Ten myths and facts about the death penalty