Mitigating the Dangers of Capital Convictions Based on Eyewitness Testimony through Treason's Two-Witness Rule

Abstract

MONLKAJAIN INTRODUCTION The imposition of capital punishment is fast becoming a controversial issue in the United States, due to the news of the high number of innocents being released from prison and from death row. This news is even forcing proponents of capital punishment who have always advocated the idea of an ultimate sanction for the most heinous crimes to question their strong support for such an irreversible sanction. Specifically, recent advances in DNA testing leading to the release of innocent de-J.D. candidate, Northwestern University School of Law, 2002. The author would like to thank Professors Christopher Bracey and Lawrence Marshall for their invaluable research and editorial assistance. See generally MICHAEL L. RADELET ET AL, IN SPrrIE OF INNOCENcE ERRO,\EOUS CONVICIONS IN CAPITAL CASES (1992); BARRY SCHEcK Er AL, AcruAL INNoctNcr. FivE DAYS TO EXECUTION AND OTHER DISPATCHES FROM THE WRONGLY CONICTED (2000) (both discussing cases where prisoners whose innocence was later established were released from prison and from death row). In the twenty-five year period since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1974, 553 people have been executed. Id. at 218. Within that period, eighty convicted prisoners have been released from death row, and ultimately had their convictions vacated altogether. Id. For every seven prisoners executed, one innocent person is freed. Id Between 1973 and 1993, an average of 2.5 people a year were released from death row. Ia From 1993 to 1999, an average of 4.6 convicted people were set free annually. Id. Republican Governor George Ryan of Illinois, a longtime advocate of capital punishment, issued a moratorium against the death penalty, temporarily halting executions in his state in order to ensure that inmates were not being put to death for crimes they did not commit.