Post by SoulTrainOz on Jun 26, 2006 21:54:02 GMT -5
Person
Absolute Certainty Dismissed as State Refuses DNA Test Prior to Execution
For the 4th time in 19 months, newly discovered evidence has emerged that an innocent person in all probability was executed, the Tennessee Coalition to Abolish State Killing said today.
The Chicago Tribune reported in its Sunday editions that evidence shows Carlos De Luna, executed Dec. 7, 1989 for the murder of Wanda Lopez in Corpus Christi, Texas was not in fact the killer. The newspaper pointed to another man, Carlos Hernandez, who admitted repeatedly that he alone killed Lopez. A prosecutor denied the very existence of Hernandez, despite
the fact that he knew about Hernandez from a previous murder that he had prosecuted. Furthermore, Hernandez was well known because of his lengthy criminal history, which included knife assaults similar to the one that killed Lopez.
The De Luna case marks the fourth time in the last nineteen months that investigative reporting has revealed strong evidence of an innocent person being executed. The convictions of Cameron Todd Willingham and Ruben Cantu in Texas, and Larry Griffin in Missouri have all been called into question. All 3 cases are currently under investigation. All three men, like De Luna, were executed.
"The execution of one innocent person is too many and now we are dealing with four very disturbing reports in the past 19 months," said Randy Tatel, Executive Director of the Tennessee Coalition to Abolish State Killing (TCASK). "With Paul House wrongfully convicted and still facing execution here in Tennessee we can only conclude that the capital punishment system is broken."
Tennessee is poised to execute Sedley Alley on June 28th, despite significant concerns as to the reliability of his conviction. Alley was convicted of the 1985 murder of Suzanne Marie Collins. However, recently discovered evidence, which was withheld from the defense at trial, establishes that Alley was under police surveillance at the time of Suzanne Collins death. Furthermore, Alley's supposed confession bears all the earmarks of being false or coerced. The assertions of Alley's confession, that he ran Ms. Collins over with his car and then stabbed her in the head with the pointed end of a screwdriver, do not match the forensic evidence of the case.
"20 years after the fact Sedley Alley's conviction is extremely
problematic," said Tatel. "The state of Tennessee aggravates our
collective anxiety about executing an innocent person by refusing to DNA test readily available physical evidence."
In Alley's case, DNA evidence, including the victim's clothing, exists and could be subjected to testing at no cost to the state. The results could provide clear proof of guilt or innocence, but the state of Tennessee has so far refused to allow the testing. DNA testing was not available at the time of Alley's trial.
The Chicago Tribune's series "confirms our worst fear and our worst nightmare," said Tatel. "We have a death penalty system that produced results that we simply cannot trust. We therefore call for an immediate halt to all executions."
(source: TCASK)
Absolute Certainty Dismissed as State Refuses DNA Test Prior to Execution
For the 4th time in 19 months, newly discovered evidence has emerged that an innocent person in all probability was executed, the Tennessee Coalition to Abolish State Killing said today.
The Chicago Tribune reported in its Sunday editions that evidence shows Carlos De Luna, executed Dec. 7, 1989 for the murder of Wanda Lopez in Corpus Christi, Texas was not in fact the killer. The newspaper pointed to another man, Carlos Hernandez, who admitted repeatedly that he alone killed Lopez. A prosecutor denied the very existence of Hernandez, despite
the fact that he knew about Hernandez from a previous murder that he had prosecuted. Furthermore, Hernandez was well known because of his lengthy criminal history, which included knife assaults similar to the one that killed Lopez.
The De Luna case marks the fourth time in the last nineteen months that investigative reporting has revealed strong evidence of an innocent person being executed. The convictions of Cameron Todd Willingham and Ruben Cantu in Texas, and Larry Griffin in Missouri have all been called into question. All 3 cases are currently under investigation. All three men, like De Luna, were executed.
"The execution of one innocent person is too many and now we are dealing with four very disturbing reports in the past 19 months," said Randy Tatel, Executive Director of the Tennessee Coalition to Abolish State Killing (TCASK). "With Paul House wrongfully convicted and still facing execution here in Tennessee we can only conclude that the capital punishment system is broken."
Tennessee is poised to execute Sedley Alley on June 28th, despite significant concerns as to the reliability of his conviction. Alley was convicted of the 1985 murder of Suzanne Marie Collins. However, recently discovered evidence, which was withheld from the defense at trial, establishes that Alley was under police surveillance at the time of Suzanne Collins death. Furthermore, Alley's supposed confession bears all the earmarks of being false or coerced. The assertions of Alley's confession, that he ran Ms. Collins over with his car and then stabbed her in the head with the pointed end of a screwdriver, do not match the forensic evidence of the case.
"20 years after the fact Sedley Alley's conviction is extremely
problematic," said Tatel. "The state of Tennessee aggravates our
collective anxiety about executing an innocent person by refusing to DNA test readily available physical evidence."
In Alley's case, DNA evidence, including the victim's clothing, exists and could be subjected to testing at no cost to the state. The results could provide clear proof of guilt or innocence, but the state of Tennessee has so far refused to allow the testing. DNA testing was not available at the time of Alley's trial.
The Chicago Tribune's series "confirms our worst fear and our worst nightmare," said Tatel. "We have a death penalty system that produced results that we simply cannot trust. We therefore call for an immediate halt to all executions."
(source: TCASK)