There are so many cases of faulty justice in death sentences that books could be written about them. Unfortunately few have been published to date. One such case is that of Earl Washington.
On January 20, 1984, Earl Washington, a black man--defended for all of forty minutes by a lawyer who had never tried a death-penalty case--was found guilty of rape and murder in the state of Virginia and sentenced to death. After nine years (9) on death row, DNA testing cast doubt on his conviction and saved his life. However, he spent another eight years (8) in prison before more sophisticated DNA technology proved his innocence and convicted the guilty man.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/case/cases/
Because of this and so many other cases there should be a 50-state moratorium on the death penalty until we put in place policies and procedures that allow one to be 100% certain that the person being executed did the crime.
Sources:
Tim Junkin, 2005, Bloodsworth: The True Story of One Man's Triumph over Injustice, A Shannon Ravenel Book
Garrett, Brandon, 2012, Convicting the Innocent: Where Criminal Prosecutions Go Wrong. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
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