Today's New York Times reports, "4.1% Are Said to Face Death on Convictions That Are False," by Jan Hoffman. Here's the beginning:
Some 4.1 percent of death row defendants are falsely convicted, according to a widely cited study published this week. The figure concerned but did not surprise opponents of the death penalty.
But prosecutors disputed the finding, saying that it was hypothetical and overstated.
Determining the number of false convictions is almost impossible, as the study authors observed, and correcting a false conviction is extraordinarily difficult.
But post-conviction capital cases receive far more scrutiny than other felony convictions. So Samuel R. Gross, a professor at the University of Michigan Law School, and Barbara O’Brien, an associate professor at Michigan State University College of Law, looked at 7,482 inmates sentenced to death between 1973 and 2004.
Earlier coverage of the innocence study begins at the link.
The study is available at the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
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