Birmingham News: Governor ignores truth in upcoming execution

Thomas Arthur is scheduled to be executed in Alabama on Thursday, despite the possibility that DNA testing in the case could prove Arthur’s innocence. The Innocence Project has called on Alabama Gov. Bob Riley to seek the truth in this case before allowing the execution to take place, and Riley has refused. This is the second time in two months that Riley has denied an inmate the right to possibly prove their innocence through DNA testing before an execution – Darrell Grayson was executed in July despite pleas for DNA tests. An editorial in today’s Birmingham News says Riley’s disappointing pattern is beyond logic and should be broken.

In a statement criticizing Alabama's governor, the Innocence Project pointed out that 15 of those cleared nationwide by DNA testing were on Death Row and that some of them were days away from execution when they were exonerated.

"If any of those 15 people had been in Alabama, they would be dead today," Innocence Project co-director Peter Neufeld said last Wednesday.

Neufeld called it "unconscionable" that Riley won't insist on using the best science to determine the truth before putting inmates to death. Neufeld is right.

Read the full editorial here

. (Birmingham News, 09/25/07)

Read the Innocence Project press release on Arthur’s case

.