NCJ Number
156515
Date Published
1993
Length
180 pages
Annotation
The U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary held hearings vis- a-vis a bill to allow a prisoner under sentence of death to obtain judicial review of newly discovered evidence showing he is probably innocent of the crime for which he was convicted.
Abstract
Many Americans, including prominent politicians, oppose expansion of the death penalty or favor its abolition altogether because of the risk that an innocent person might be executed. Two men who were sentenced to death, and were nearly wrongly executed, testified at the hearing. Supporters of capital punishment believe that some crimes are so heinous as to merit this ultimate sentence. They would argue that current legislation provides for lengthy litigation that allows many murderers to avoid their execution for years, and that the system contains adequate safeguards to protect innocent persons from wrongful execution. Other witnesses at this hearing included prosecutors and defense attorneys, and representatives of advocacy and lobbying groups on both sides of this issue.