Miscarriages of justice and the conviction of the innocent
Archive theme
The death penalty is the only punishment that admits no correction. Every case of a person sentenced to death and later found innocent — through DNA evidence, a retracted testimony, a retrial — says something about all the cases in which the review did not arrive in time.
This page collects the news on miscarriages of justice, retrials and people cleared after a death sentence.
Latest news
- JANUARY 1, 2002IllinoisDEATH PENALTY
Illinois does not forbid the execution of the mentally...
Illinois does not forbid the execution of the mentally retarded but does forbid the execution of juvenile offenders
- DECEMBER 5, 2001NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
In the northern Nigerian state of Sokoto, a woman is...
In the northern Nigerian state of Sokoto, a woman is awaiting the outcome of an appeal against a conviction for adultery by an Islamic, or Sharia, court
- AUGUST 23, 2001IdahoDEATH PENALTY
Charles Irvin Fain, who spent over 18 years on Idaho's...
Charles Irvin Fain, who spent over 18 years on Idaho's death row, has been freed with all charges dismissed
- JUNE 21, 2001United StatesDEATH PENALTY
At the first World Congress Against the Death Penalty,...
At the first World Congress Against the Death Penalty, Walter Schwimmer, the secretary-general of the Council of Europe, denounced the United States' use of capital punishment
- JUNE 30, 2000United StatesDEATH PENALTY
A CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll shows that only a slim...
A CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll shows that only a slim majority (51%) of Americans believe the death penalty is applied fairly
- JUNE 23, 2000FranceDEATH PENALTY
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Anne Gazeau-Secret said...
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Anne Gazeau-Secret said the French consul in Houston, speaking for all 15 European Union states, had intervened several times on behalf of Gary Graham, who went to his death proclaiming his innocence after Texas Governor Georg
- JUNE 2, 2000JapanDEATH PENALTY
The government issued a statement that defended the...
The government issued a statement that defended the December 1999 execution of a death-row inmate who had been requesting a retrial
- MAY 14, 2000TexasDEATH PENALTY
Some members of the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles...
Some members of the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles have expressed doubts about Gov
- MARCH 16, 2000JapanDEATH PENALTY
The Sendai High Court rejected a former death-row inmate's...
The Sendai High Court rejected a former death-row inmate's demand that the state and Miyagi Prefecture pay a total of 143 million yen in compensation for falsely charging him of murdering a family of four in 1955
- FEBRUARY 11, 2000BotswanaDEATH PENALTY
Mariette Sonjaleen Bosch was sentenced to death by...
Mariette Sonjaleen Bosch was sentenced to death by the Botswana High Court at Lobatse, for killing Maria Magdalene Wolmarans the wife of Marthinus Johannes 'Tienie' Wolmarans, the man she later married, on June 26, 1996