Monday, September 7, 2009
Arson and the Death Penalty
A friend sent me this article from the New Yorker. It follows the case of Todd Willingham, who was put to death in Texas, and there is now some suggestion that he could have been an innocent man. Take what you wish from that portion of the article. The reason I post it here is that I find the facts interesting due to my intimate knowledge of what makes arson. Thank you Law Skills III. I think that based on this article, the Flinders v. Mismo materials may need to be updated.
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That's a long piece. Haven't it made it all the way through, and it's sad, but you're right about the need for an arson update. Makes me wonder how many convictions don't get appealed simply because the court found the facts right, but not the law.
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ReplyDeletePeople exonerated from death row since 1973:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/innocence-list-those-freed-death-row
...that's just when the process works and doesn't put innocent (wo)men to death. I don't know if this guy was innocent or not, but this quote from Mill says it all: "if by an error of justice an innocent person is put to death, the mistake can never be corrected.”
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