Innocence Project Co-Director testifies on death penalty

09.08.08

On Friday, Innocence Project Co-Director Barry Scheck testified before the final hearing of the

Maryland Commission on Capital Punishment

about the pronounced risk of an innocent person being executed if states continue to sentence people to death.

(Former Prosecutor Matthew) Campbell relayed to the commission testimony of another prosecutor who said that, with today's forensic science, it is unlikely that an innocent man could be executed.

"I couldn't disagree more," Scheck said. He warned that post-conviction DNA testing is "not a panacea" that can right all wrongful convictions.

And Kirk Bloodsworth, a commission member who was sentenced to death in Maryland for a crime he didn’t commit and served eight years before DNA testing proved his innocence, testified that he is “living proof that Maryland gets it wrong.”


Read the full story here

. (Baltimore Sun, 09/06/08)

 

Scheck will also testify tomorrow before a committee in the Tennessee legislature examining the state's death penalty system.

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