Innocence Project and the death penalty

Baltimore Sun:

Also testifying yesterday was Barry Scheck, director of an Innocence Project in New York. Similar advocacy organizations exist in Maryland and elsewhere. Considered the father of post-conviction DNA testing, Scheck said DNA has helped win freedom for 220 wrongfully convicted people. Death penalty opponents say 129 of them had been sentenced to death.

"More innocent people are being convicted than anyone ever thought," Scheck said.

He told the commission that while reasonable people may disagree on the morality of the death penalty, no one wants innocent people to be executed.

That's a statement that is as true in Indiana as anywhere else with 40% of Hoosiers believing that innocent people have been wrongfully sentenced to death in the past 5 years. Hoosiers also believe that about 3% of those executed were innocent of their crimes. (Poll data from the ABA Moratorium Project found here).

[The Innocence Blog]