As he noted in a Washington Post commentary that the U.S. Supreme Court’s “review of Kansas’s death penalty statute seemed to stir more emotion than almost any other case the justices considered this term,” Theodore M. Shaw of the Legal Defense Fund took issue with Justice Antonin Scalia’s assertion in his concurring opinion that no one has been wrongly executed since capital punishment’s comeback. Shaw said that in four cases his group has investigated — of Texans Cameron Willingham, Ruben Cantu and Carlos DeLuna and of Larry Griffin of St. Louis — “it is now clear that the individuals executed almost certainly did not commit the crimes for which they were convicted.” Shaw concluded: “It’s time to recognize that, regardless of our views on the death penalty, any future debates must proceed with the knowledge that we have put innocent people to death.” Still, if Shaw is correct, you have to wonder why “the innocent’s name” has not been “shouted from the rooftops,” as Scalia suggested it would be.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
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