The case against the death penalty builds, and events this summer and fall have added rocket fuel to arguments to abolish it.
This summer, two more men on death row were exonerated, bringing that total to 200 since 1973.
This, from the Witness to Innocence Project (an organization made up of, by and for those exonerated): “Even as the use of the death penalty has precipitously declined across the country, exonerations continue to occur, demonstrating serious risk of executing the innocent. The shocking milestone of 200 exonerations tells us that wherever the death penalty exists, innocent people are at risk of being wrongfully sent to death row and even executed.”
This has happened across nearly 30 states and more than 100 counties, indicating the problems are systemic.
“The wrongful convictions of these 200 people are the result of mistakes, misconduct, and the political ambitions of government officials that the American public should no longer tolerate,” Robin M. Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said in a statement.
Around 1,600 people have been executed since 1973 — so one exoneration for every eight executions — those odds alone ought to be enough to damn the death penalty to oblivion.
This week, Texas is preparing to execute a man, Robert Roberson, despite serious doubts that he is not only innocent, but that no crime occurred.
Among those who have filed letters in support of Roberson’s clemency petition to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles and to Gov. Greg Abbott: Nearly three dozen scientists and doctors challenging the science, a bipartisan group of nearly 90 Texas legislators, eight advocates for parental rights, eight organizations that advocate for people with autism and their families (Roberson is autistic), faith leaders, innocence advocacy groups, former judges and 70 attorneys who have represented people wrongfully accused of child abuse.
This outpouring, argues Roberson’s attorney, demonstrates that there can be no confidence in the integrity of an execution.
Another who has come out in support of Roberson is the former lead detective in the case.
“I was the supervising detective, investigating and providing oversight in the case where Robert Roberson was accused of shaking his two-year-old daughter, Nikki, to death,” Brian Wharton wrote in a letter to the Palestine, Texas, newspaper. “I testified for the prosecution and helped send Mr. Roberson to death row in 2003.
“For 20 years, I have thought that something went very wrong in Mr. Roberson’s case and feared that justice was not served. If there is no movement to correct this injustice, I fear myself and others will carry our guilt eternally.”
“Others” would include those keep silent in the face of overwhelming evidence that the death penalty is too flawed to allow its continued use.
A group, Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty, has noted that in the decades since the U.S. Supreme Court upheld its use in 1976, “we have tinkered with the death penalty in an effort to make it fair, accurate, and effective. Yet the system continues to fail.”
Nothing we have seen in recent years has changed our minds.
