The Slaughter of the Innocent: Those Who are Innocent But Still Sentenced to Death

There has always been a great debate over whether or not their should be a capital punishment. Texas has the highest rate of capital punishment. In the last thirty-something years, 133 people have been released from death row due to their innocence. Many innocent people have been sentenced to death row, and many were killed before the truth of their innocence was revealed. The sentencing of these people may  be due to faulty procedures, untruthful witnesses, and the pressure to nail someone(anyone) for a case. I am not saying that I am against the death penalty. If a family member or close friend of mine was brutally murdered, I would most definitely move for it. However, I feel that the judicial system should be absolutely sure of the offenses of those on trial.

There have been 9 exonerations just within the state of Texas. There have been five known cases of death by capital punishment in this state that have later been found to be innocent. There have been nearly forty known cases across the U.S. of those wrongfully sentenced to death and who have died. You may say that these people must have had some part in the case to be “hung” for it. However, this is a great misconception. Some may have just been at the wrong place at the wrong time, others were framed by someone who did not like them, some may have been charged due to racism,coercion, and others just by bad investigating. A study showed that within 86 death row wrongful convictions, 45 were due to eyewitness error. This is very common in all kinds of cases. People may make mistaken identifications due to poor lighting, or due to their mind frame at the point of the event.Many are hysterical at the time, not thinking clearly, and lets not forget the cognitive errors in memory that take place. There is also a common contribution if a gun is involved where people focus on the gun rather than the one holding it. Lineups and photo identifications also can contribute to error in judgement.When faced with all of the pictures or people in a lineup, people may not have a clear memory of the event in the first place and may make mistakes. Also many tend to look for who out of the bunch is most likely the culprit and who isn’t rather than who  they actually saw. When viewing the photos for awhile, the pictures tend to literally start looking alike. The witness also often feels the pressure of having the case “resting on their shoulders”, many are also victims of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.