The Death Penalty In America - Executing Innocent People
"In his final hours on death row, Cameron Todd Willingham and his attorneys tried frantically to show the governor of Texas a new scientific report proving his innocence. The evidence was apparently ignored, and Willingham was executed on February 17, 2004."
Huffington Post
(NEW YORK; August 31, 2009) – An exhaustive new investigative report shows that Cameron Todd Willingham, who was executed in Texas in 2004, was innocent. The report comes three years after the Innocence Project released analysis from some of the nation’s leading forensic experts who found that the central evidence against Willingham was not valid. The Innocence Project also obtained public records showing that Texas officials ignored this evidence in the days leading up to Willingham’s execution.
Innocence Project
Two things:
We, along with other civilised nations, don't have a death penalty
and
we have a wonderful lawyer by the name of James Lockyer. You can read about him here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Lockyer
It's people like him and the parliamentary process--excluding Harper's tenure-- that ensures we will not fall into the same infamy as the US
Posted by Anonymous | 11:47 am, August 31, 2009
Hear hear!
The Governor of Texas ignored scientific evidence and did not issue (at a minimum) a temporary stay of execution - should he NOT be charged with Criminal Negligence Causing Death???
Posted by leftdog | 12:28 pm, August 31, 2009
It was almost too horrifying to read. I hear stories of this all the time online and in the news. How any one country can be so off the rest of the western world standards for justice is just wrong.
Thankfully Diefenbaker, a conservative PM was opposed...
http://archives.cbc.ca/society/crime_justice/topics/625-3351/
Posted by ricky | 5:48 pm, August 31, 2009