In 1982, a woman in Ada, OK was murdered in her apartment. This is the catalyst for one of the most blatant miscarriages of justice I've ever read about. The Ada Police Department set about to solve the crime. Rather than letting the evidence lead them to the killer, the police officers started with suspects and built the case around them.
Ron Williamson and Dennis Fritz were accused of murder. Being innocent, they felt that the legal system would vindicate them. Instead, they were convicted based on manufactured evidence and spent 12 years searching for ways to overturn their convictions. And death sentences.
In Ron's case, he had the additional problem of having mental health issues. He should have never been put on trial in the first place as his competency was called into question.
I've always been a proponent of the death penalty. If someone took another human being's life, they should pay the price with their own. This book really has me reconsidering my stance. In most cases, I still think it would be warranted but it has me reconsidering if everyone on Death Row is guilt. But now it's tempered with "What if ..."
We Moved!!!
15 years ago
2 comments:
If you're interested in reading/learning more about people placed on death row who are later proven innocent there is an awesome book called Actual Innocence writen by Barry Scheck that discusses people convicted and sentenced to death and later proved innocent through DNA evidence. There's also a documentary that won the Jury Prize at Sundance in 2005 called After Innocence that goes through the same thing - and was absolutely fascinating.
the same thing - and was absolutely fascinating.
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