29 April 2014 (01:10 UTC-07 Tango)/28 Jumada t-Tania 1435/09 Ordibehesht 1393/02 Wu-Chen(4th month) 4712

The following quotes are from a new study published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences:

“…..at least 4.1% would be exonerated. We conclude that this is a conservative estimate of the proportion of false conviction among death sentences in the United States.”

“…very few false convictions are ever discovered……In the United States, however, a high proportion of false convictions that do come to light and produce exonerations are concentrated among the tiny minority of cases….”

“False convictions, by definition, are unobserved when they occur……also extremely difficult to detect after the fact. As a result, the great majority of innocent defendants remain undetected. The rate of such errors is often described as a ‘dark figure’—an important measure of the performance of the criminal justice system that is not merely unknown but unknowable.”

“….as of December 31, 2004, the final day of our study period. On that date, 12.6% of these defendants had been executed, 1.6% were exonerated, 4% died of suicide or natural causes while on death row, 46.1% remained on death row, and 35.8% were removed from death row but remained in prison.”

“….some innocent defendants who remained on death row for more than 21.4 y but were not exonerated are misclassified as guilty. Some may still be exonerated; some may be executed; and most will likely die in prison, on death row or off, of natural causes or suicide.”

“…..the rate of error among death sentences is far greater than Justice Scalia’s reassuring 0.027%. That much is apparent directly from the number of death row exonerations that have already occurred. Our research adds the disturbing news that most innocent defendants who have been sentenced to death have not been exonerated, and many— including the great majority of those who have been resentenced to life in prison—probably never will be. This is only part of a disturbing picture……the rate of innocence must be higher for convicted capital defendants who are not sentenced to death than for those who are. The net result is that the great majority of innocent defendants who are convicted of capital murder in the United States are neither executed nor exonerated. They are sentenced, or resentenced to prison for life, and then forgotten.”