Sentenced To Death For Crimes They Did Not Commit: The Men Who Lived To Tell The Tale

[leftchick]

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/11/14/5225/



Ex-prisoners recount their stories ahead of UN meeting to discuss a global ban on capital punishment
by Ed Pilkington

Three men, three extraordinary stories. One spent 18 years in prison in Uganda for having murdered a neighbour later found to be alive. Another survived 34 years facing execution in Japan. The third became the 100th prisoner on death row to be found innocent and freed in the US.1114 08

Amnesty International brought the men together in New York before a hearing of the human rights committee of the UN tomorrow that will call for a moratorium on executions around the world as a first step towards abolishing the death penalty. It is the ultimate argument, the campaign believes - the testimony of individuals who managed to survive the system, but who came close to being killed despite their innocence.

Venezuela became the first country to remove the death penalty in 1853, and the abolition movement has grown, with 133 states members. Britain abolished the penalty in 1967. As countries drop away, attention focuses on the remaining practitioners.

Last year at least 1,591 people were put to death in 25 nations, but 91% of those were executed in six countries: China, Iran, Pakistan, Iraq, Sudan and the US. China is known to have executed more than 1,000 prisoners in 2006, but the real figure may be closer to 8,000. Twelve US states put a total of 53 people to death last year, but the practice has fallen to its lowest level in a decade after the supreme court decided to hear arguments about the humanity of the lethal injection method.

The UN resolution, backed by 72 countries including the 27-nation EU, has no power to enforce a moratorium, but it is seen by campaigners as a chance to apply pressure for reform on those countries teetering on abolition.

Amnesty’s death row expert, Piers Bannister, said the men’s stories “provide graphic evidence that the death penalty is administered by flawed systems that put innocent people at risk”.

[Benhurst]

1. China, Iran, Pakistan, Iraq, Sudan and the US

My, what enlightened company we keep.

[leftchick]

2. very telling

isn't it? :(

[Clintonista2]

5. Don't worry, Canada will be joining you on that list soon

Our wonderful (:sarcasm:) conservative gov't recently suggested that they would support re-instating the death penalty in Canada, and they've also stopped requesting that Canadian citizens on death row in the US have their sentance changed to life in prison (which is what we've been doing for years)

[Nutmegger]

3. R&K

Many believe that our wonderful justice system is infallible, but many innocent people are just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Some can prove their innocence in court, but others can't.

I will always speak out against this barbaric practice as it's being done in my name.

Not in my name!

[flashl]

4. K&R n/t