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[Patrick Bateman]

At least one in 25 people on death row in the United States would be exonerated if given enough time, researchers have found. The study, which used statistical methods to extrapolate from available data, is one of the first to try to quantify the rate of false convictions.

The work attempts to shed light on a notoriously difficult task: gauging the number of people falsely convicted of crimes. Few convictions result in an exoneration, most of those convicted never manage to prove their innocence and many cases do not have their final outcomes recorded, so data are not available to researchers. Innocent people also frequently plead guilty in the hope of reducing their sentence, effectively eliminating themselves from any analysis. Therefore, quantifying exonerations is the only way to get a glimpse of the extent of wrongful convictions, says lead author Samuel Gross, a criminologist at the University of Michigan Law School in Ann Arbor.

Gross and his colleagues analysed the rate of exonerations among prisoners on death row, whose outcomes are carefully tracked by the US Bureau of Justice Statistics in Washington DC. In a previous report, the researchers found that less than 0.1% of prison sentences are death sentences, yet capital cases accounted for 12% of exonerations between 1989 and 2012. Gross attributes the disparity to the tendency of lawyers and courts to work harder to definitively determine guilt when a person's life is on the line.

A case for delay
But many death sentences are never carried out. Courts often change a convict’s sentence to life imprisonment, or the accused dies from suicide or natural causes while on death row. To determine what would have happened to these prisoners had they remained there, Gross’s team relied on a statistical method known as a survival curve, which is commonly used in epidemiology to measure the number of people in a population who die from a specific cause over a certain period, and so extrapolate the rate of deaths for longer periods of time.

The longer a person stayed on death row, the team found, the higher the chance that he or she would be exonerated. Furthermore, the researchers calculated that if all of those sentenced to death were kept on death row indefinitely without being executed, receiving a life sentence or dying of another cause, at least 4.1% would eventually be exonerated. That number still underestimates the rate of false convictions, Gross says, because many innocent people never manage to prove their innocence.

Because a longer death row stint means a greater chance of exoneration, people who are put to death quickly after their convictions could be more likely to have been innocent than the population of convicts as a whole — likely because there has not been as much time for subtler pieces of evidence to come to light.

According to James Liebman, a lawyer at Columbia Law School in New York City who was not involved in the study, the statistics suggest something of a paradox. Often a convict is lucky enough to have his death sentence commuted to life in prison, by a state governor for example, because of lingering doubt about his guilt. But because fewer people with life sentences are exonerated, Liebman says, “that luck will be bad luck because there's a lesser change of having that error discovered.”

http://www.nature.com/news/death-penalty-analysis-reveals-extent-of-wrongful-convictions-1.15114



Time to abolish it..

 

[benjipwns]

 

[Omni]

I don't get it.

 

[jimi_dini]

But many death sentences are never carried out. Courts often change a convict’s sentence to life imprisonment, or the accused dies from suicide or natural causes while on death row.
...
Furthermore, the researchers calculated that if all of those sentenced to death were kept on death row indefinitely without being executed, receiving a life sentence or dying of another cause, at least 4.1% would eventually be exonerated. That number still underestimates the rate of false convictions, Gross says, because many innocent people never manage to prove their innocence.

That's why modern and civilized countries don't have a death sentence anymore.

 

[freenudemacusers]

if we abolish the death penalty then what's the incentive for criminals to not get themselves wrongfully convicted?

 

[Leunam]

Despite all this you're still going to get people that feel that capital punishment should still be allowed in cases where evidence is overwhelming. Not that they're right, but some people will never be convinced.

 

[Bay Maximus]

Yeah, our justice system is way too terrible to have a death penalty.

 

[Kinyou]

So rick perry probably killed about 9 innocents and received cheers for that.

 

[NeoRausch]

if we abolish the death penalty then what's the incentive for criminals to not get themselves wrongfully convicted?

not like it doesn't work in other countries.

 

[NYCmetsfan]

This probably is the best political argument for abolishing the death penalty but even if it was 100% accurate it should still be abolished (save for extreme war crimes like genocide)

 

[Chariot]

if we abolish the death penalty then what's the incentive for criminals to not get themselves wrongfully convicted?

Yeah look at the criminal hell that is europe and then the peaceful paradise known as USA where thanks to guns and deathsentence nothing bad happens.

 

[jay]

This probably is the best political argument for abolishing the death penalty but even if it was 100% accurate it should still be abolished

Yeah, this is really the crux of it. Killing innocent people is horrendous and a good political argument, but really it would still be barbaric if we never executed another innocent person.

 

[Kai Dracon]

Despite all this you're still going to get people that feel that capital punishment should still be allowed in cases where evidence is overwhelming. Not that they're right, but some people will never be convinced.

Some people are so focused on the revenge version of justice that they won't care until it's them or possibly a close family member wrongfully on death row.

 

[GPsych]

There is no question that the death penalty should be abolished. Not only are innocent people wrongfully put to death, the entire process is also inherently racist/classist. Further, due process is almost impossible for people with language barriers or those with mild cognitive deficits. The whole thing is messed up in general.

 

[mackattk]

I urge everybody to read this if they haven't yet or if they are pro-death penalty.

It has totally changed my mind on this subject and made me realize how much can go wrong during an investigation.

 

[Xtyle]

I watch crime shows and often victims' families cheers when killers are sentenced to death and are disappointed when they get a lesser sentence. Yes punishment to the killers doesn't bring the dead back but hey, maybe it makes the victims' families feel better... But i guess they are not important, right? What about the victim? If i were to get savagedly tortured, raped, murdered, I would wish the same to my murder.

I don't think we will ever get a perfect system though. It just can't be.

 

[ComputerMKII]

The death penalty always end up in innocents being killed. The problem is, If you discover it too late, you can't un-kill somebody. That said, 1) If the punishment exists, it will also be enforced against people who haven't confessed and 2) Yes, confessions can be false.

I'll be content with real life imprisonment as a punishment. It's not being kind, it's thinking beyond gut feelings. If God himself could kill the guilty I wouldn't mind. Human justice, however, will be wrong. It's not that it can be wrong, it will be wrong, statistically - in 1 or 2 cases out of 1000, at least.

I refuse to support or be responsible for the assassination of innocents.

 

[Aylinato]

Some people are so focused on the revenge version of justice that they won't care until it's them or possibly a close family member wrongfully on death row.

Revenge is not justice, it's vengeance those people want

 

[Xtyle]

What is revenge for one person is justice to another.

 

[Leunam]

I watch crime shows and often victims' families cheers when killers are sentenced to death and are disappointed when they get a lesser sentence. Yes punishment to the killers doesn't bring the dead back but hey, maybe it makes the victims' families feel better... But i guess they are not important, right? What about the victim? If i were to get savagedly tortured, raped, murdered, I would wish the same to my murder.

Making the victims family feel better is a bit narrow sighted I think and also misses the larger point.

And this doesn't take into account cases where the family does not want to seek the death penalty and asks for life in prison instead.

What is revenge for one person is justice to another.

What is revenge for one person or justice to another should have no sway as it is the judge and the jury who will be the ones to decide.

 

[Xtyle]

What is revenge for one person or justice to another should have no sway as it is the judge and the jury who will be the ones to decide.

You just made my point. How then do you think a death sentence is revenge, but not justic when it is given by the Judge and the jury involved??

 

[Succinct Verbosity]

What is revenge for one person is justice to another.

What relevance does that in a civilised court?

Edit: to be more clear, as Leunam pointed out, what one person wants doesn't matter. What society wants matters. The judicial system is representative of our society.

 

[empty vessel]

Most people would be shocked at the carelessness by which capital cases are prosecuted and subsequently reviewed by courts. The idea that caution is exercised in these cases or that meaningful review of them is conducted by anybody is false.

 

[Leunam]

You just made my point. How then do you think a death sentence is revenge, but not justic when it is given by the Judge and the jury involved??

But that's the thing, I don't think capital punishment is justice, and the justice system is not a system to mete out revenge.

 

[nubbe]

Lifetime is a harsher punishment anyways

You live your entire life locked up, just waiting to die

 

[Iksenpets]

I watch crime shows and often victims' families cheers when killers are sentenced to death and are disappointed when they get a lesser sentence. Yes punishment to the killers doesn't bring the dead back but hey, maybe it makes the victims' families feel better... But i guess they are not important, right? What about the victim? If i were to get savagedly tortured, raped, murdered, I would wish the same to my murder.

I don't think we will ever get a perfect system though. It just can't be.

Not the government's job to play into traumatised people's revenge fantasies. A thousand people having to feel sad because they don't get to watch someone die is pretty easily outweighed by one innocent being accidentally killed.

 

[Xtyle]

But that's the thing, I don't think capital punishment is justice, and the justice system is not a system to mete out revenge.

It is justic because that's the law. What you want is a different law perhaps.

 

[Leunam]

It is justic because that's the law. What you want is a different law perhaps.

Unjust laws are nothing new. And it's a practice that some states have already ruled is unjust.

 

[Orayn]

The death penalty always end up in innocents being killed. The problem is, If you discover it too late, you can't un-kill somebody. That said, 1) If the punishment exists, it will also be enforced against people who haven't confessed and 2) Yes, confessions can be false.

I'll be content with real life imprisonment as a punishment. It's not being kind, it's thinking beyond gut feelings. If God himself could kill the guilty I wouldn't mind. Human justice, however, will be wrong. It's not that it can be wrong, it will be wrong, statistically - in 1 or 2 cases out of 1000, at least.

I refuse to support or be responsible for the assassination of innocents.

Very well said. The fact that killing innocent people is both inevitable and completely avoidable should be enough to give anyone pause, especially when you consider the pervasive racial biases in our justice system.

 

[mackattk]

It is justic because that's the law. What you want is a different law perhaps.

It's not about whether friends and families of the victim get the "revenge" or "justice" or whatever else. It is about innocents being falsely accused and being sentenced to death or life in prison. While the feelings of the victims' families are important. it doesn't mean that someone innocent should be sentenced to death for a crime they did not commit.

If you haven't read the link I posted please take some time out of your day to do so.

 

[KalBalboa]

if we abolish the death penalty then what's the incentive for criminals to not get themselves wrongfully convicted?

Life in prison.

 

[Xtyle]

Not the government's job to play into traumatised people's revenge fantasies. A thousand people having to feel sad because they don't get to watch someone die is pretty easily outweighed by one innocent being accidentally killed.

I see your point but you do know society is also made up of people, people who could be victims, familes and friends of victims...we can't single them out from this so called society.
Maybe there is a problem somewhere. I wouldn't automatically blame it on death sentence itself. I mean using your reasoning you can make the same case for any type of sentencing. People could get wrongfully convicted for rape crime, should we not throw rapists in jail for life sentence? What if someone is innocent? Many people consider life sentence worse than death.

 

[mackattk]

I see your point but you do know society is also made up of people, people who could be victims, familes and friends of victims...we can't single them out from this so called society.
Maybe there is a problem somewhere. I wouldn't automatically blame it on death sentence itself. I mean using your reasoning you can make the same case for any type of sentencing. People could get wrongfully convicted for rape crime, should we not throw rapists in jail for life sentence? What if someone is innocent? Many people consider life sentence worse than death.

Life sentences can be reversed. Death sentences can't if the person is found innocent after the fact.

 

[mclem]

I misunderstood the title briefly as meaning "<5% guilty". That... would be horrifying.

 

[entremet]

Such a horrible practice. Barbaric beyond belief.

 

[StudioTan]

I watch crime shows and often victims' families cheers when killers are sentenced to death and are disappointed when they get a lesser sentence. Yes punishment to the killers doesn't bring the dead back but hey, maybe it makes the victims' families feel better... But i guess they are not important, right? What about the victim? If i were to get savagedly tortured, raped, murdered, I would wish the same to my murder.

It's not the government's job to be torturers, rapists and murderers. 2 wrongs don't make a right and all that.

 

[BajiBoxer]

I see your point but you do know society is also made up of people, people who could be victims, familes and friends of victims...we can't single them out from this so called society.
Maybe there is a problem somewhere. I wouldn't automatically blame it on death sentence itself. I mean using your reasoning you can make the same case for any type of sentencing. People could get wrongfully convicted for rape crime, should we not throw rapists in jail for life sentence? What if someone is innocent? Many people consider life sentence worse than death.

Someone with a life sentence has a chance of getting out because of the appeals process, scientific advancement, etc. The two aren't really comparable. Death penalty is ancient eye for an eye type justice.

 

[zma1013]

Some of the death penalty cases I've read about in the past don't even have definitive evidence to prove guilt yet somehow still get convictions. It's stuff like 1 witness says they saw a guy kill someone and they are sent off to die. It's ridiculous.

 

[Xtyle]

So does someone on death row. That's why they arent excuted right away and go through appeal.

 

[Lamel]

I made this argument when I was in middle school, because even then I knew how stupid the death penalty was.

 

[Xtyle]

Some of the death penalty cases I've read about in the past don't even have definitive evidence to prove guilt yet somehow still get convictions. It's stuff like 1 witness says they saw a guy kill someone and they are sent off to die. It's ridiculous.

Which ones? I cant see someone getting convicted on an eye witness along. Not these days.

 

[Oppo]

Yeah, Until we have Perfect Justice™, it is inhumane to support capital punishment, I think.

We had our last hanging (was Canada's only execution method) in the 60s I think, although it wasn't outlawed until the 70s. Of course the damn conservatives wanted it back in the 80s but were defeated. Our country is better for it.

 

[Leunam]

So does someone on death row. That's why they arent excuted right away and go through appeal.

Not in the case of Cameron Todd Willingam.

 

[Massive Duck. C.M.]

I watch crime shows and often victims' families cheers when killers are sentenced to death and are disappointed when they get a lesser sentence. Yes punishment to the killers doesn't bring the dead back but hey, maybe it makes the victims' families feel better... But i guess they are not important, right? What about the victim? If i were to get savagedly tortured, raped, murdered, I would wish the same to my murder.

I don't think we will ever get a perfect system though. It just can't be.

That's tv. How entertaining would it be if they showed families not feeling better?

I've heard that real victims or families of victims often do not feel better when criminals are executed, and sometimes can even feel worse.

 

[dan2026]

The death penalty was, is and always will be a terrible idea.

It should be abolished worldwide.

Is really that simple for me.

 

[zma1013]

Which ones? I cant see someone getting convicted on an eye witness along. Not these days.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/20...d-released-30-years-after-wrongful-conviction

 

[benjipwns]

Are we allowed to just quote ourselves from the death penalty thread from a month ago?

All the talk about costs/benefits, deterrence, hypotheticals, etc. misses the core point. There is no need for the state to be granted the power to murder those within its domain. Claims that this power is necessary for preventative self-defense is a pandora's box.

The amusing or depressing part is that one of the purposes of a codified law and established legal system is to eliminate people taking justice and retribution into their own hands with things like gang/clan/revenge killings. Instead we're all supposed to submit to the system for the benefit of stability and security. So we put the criminals through this elaborate and expensive process just to wind up killing them for revenge in the end.

And regarding bad evidence convicting people:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annie_Dookhan
http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/..._after_a_string_of_shoddy_suspect_and_fraudu/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/22/annie-dookhan-guilty_n_4322917.html
http://www.innocenceproject.org/understand/False-Confessions.php

 

[ElFly]

So does someone on death row. That's why they arent excuted right away and go through appeal.

And innocent people are still executed regardless of appeals.

I don't know what mental process is told "innocent people are being executed as guilty" and the answer that comes out is "but death sentence is still right".

 

[kmax]

The death penalty was, is and always will be a terrible idea.

It should be abolished worldwide.

Is really that simple for me.

It's a barbaric ancient practice that still is carried out in many countries to this day, unfortunately.

I hope for the day it's gone from the free world, and hopefully worldwide.

 

[Random Painted HIghway]

People posting articles about studies should be required to post the study itself and not just the news interpretation. Interesting journal to publish a death penalty piece. Wonder why they couldn't hit at a more appropriate/prestigious location.

http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2014/04/23/1306417111.full.pdf

Interestingly, the study is looking only at the years 1973-2004, I do not see a reason, but I could have skimmed past it, listed for why they did not review more recent cases when there are bjs statistics for more recent years available. Case law and evidentiary rules are considerably different than what they were in the 70s and what was in place even in 2004 is quite different that what is in place today. As such, the value of this study seems questionable for anything other than a history lesson and should not be used as a tool to view the state of death penalty prosecutions in the US in 2014.