Mistakes in capital cases

Mistakes in capital cases.Columbia Law School released a comprehensive study of the death penalty that found that serious mistakes were made in 2/3 of all capital cases. The study, "A Broken System: Error Rates in Capital Cases," examined every capital conviction between 1973-1995 and found that the most common errors were incompetent defense attorneys and prosecutorial misconduct. The study also found that 82% of those whose capital judgments were overturned due to serious error were given a sentence less than death after the errors were cured on retrial, and seven percent were found to be not guilty of the capital crime. In addition, the study found that more than 90% of the states that administer the death penalty have overall error rates of 53% or higher. Professor James S. Liebman, who conducted the study, stated, "American capital sentences are persistently and systematically fraught with serious error. Indeed, capital trials produce so many mistakes that it takes three judicial inspections to catch them, leaving grave doubt whether we do catch them all."