2015/04/10

FiveThirtyEight April 7, 2015: Better Forensics Aren't Enough to Prevent Wrongful Death Sentences

Last week, Anthony Hinton became the 152nd death-row prisoner to be exonerated since 1973. Hinton had been convicted of the murder of two restaurant workers, but the case against him fell apart after the U.S. Supreme Court held in Hinton v. Alabama that his lawyer’s mistakes deprived him of a fair trial and Hinton was entitled to a new one. Rather than try him again, the state dropped the charges and set him free.

Hinton spent nearly 30 years on death row, which is more than most exonerated inmates (the median time under sentence of death is 10 years), but his path to freedom is illustrative: Like most people who’ve been exonerated to date, Hinton didn’t rely on new DNA evidence to prove him innocent. His case didn’t depend on scientists discovering how to amplify trace evidence, revising our understandings of arson, or making any other advance in forensics that shed new light on the evidence against him.

In other words, there was no reason for him to wait that long for justice.

According to the Death Penalty Information Center, only 20 of the 152 death-row exonerations since 1973 have been due to DNA evidence. The low proportion of DNA-based exculpations is due partially to prisoners’ limited post-conviction access to DNA testing. more