More than 2000 people were sentenced in USA during last 23 years for crimes for which later it turned out that they did not commit, according to the report from Samuel Grossa and Michael Schaeffera, professor of law at University Michigan.
So far of those wrongfully accused, total of 891 were released, pointed out by Gross and Schaeffer and say that it is very important to say that those wrong sentences happen very regularly. According to their claims, the number of wrongfully accused is much bigger, because “the greatest number of judgments never sees the light of day”. However, “most of the convicted never get freed, but served the sentence or dies in jail, and even when they are freed, that happen quietly in most cases, away from public’s eyes”. In that case rehabilitated prisoner has available material compensation and public apology. The situation is worse in we are talking about death penalty. In such cases the error correction is impossible.
10JOHNY FRANK GARRETT – 1992
A mentally handicapped man is executed for the rape and murder of a 76 year old nun. DNA evidence in 2004 identified someone else as the actual criminal.
09DEREK BENTLEY – 1953
A police officer is shot dead when two people flee a warehouse robbery. The one holding the gun was a minor, so the crime was pinned on his partner. It was later found that the officer may have died in friendly fire.
08CARLOS DELUNA – 1989
Executed for looking similar to a murderer, DeLuna named the actual murderer. DeLuna was arrested minutes after the body killing, even though he did not have a drop of blood on him.
07DAVID SPENCE – 1997
David Spencer was executed for the rape and murder of three teenagers. Evidence included bite marks that couldn’t be matched to his teeth and statements from jailhouse snitches who had been given pay-offs.
06LARRY GRIFFIN – 1995
A DRUG BOSS is shot 13 times, with a witness stating Larry Griffin was nowhere to be seen and no on-scene evidence found. The police went on testimony from a peofessional criminal who couldn’t be placed at the scene.
05TIMOTHY EVANS – 1950
Executed for the murder of his own baby daughter, he blamed his neighbor. Three years later it was discovered that his neighbor had killed at least eight women. Evans was pardoned.
04ELLIS WAYNE FELKER – 1996
Ellis was executed for the murder of a woman from Georgia. He was under police surveillance at the time of the murder, no DNA evidence exists and another man confessed to the crime.
03THOMAS AND MEEKS GRIFFIN – 1915
Brothers executed on the testimony of a known criminal, who had the murder victim´s gun in his possession. Racism was a factor as they were the area´s wealthiest African-Americans.
02CHARLES HUDSPETH – 1892
George Watkins went missing so his cheating wife blamed her lover Hudspeth, who was hanged. Watkins was found to be living elsewhere after finding out about his wife´s affair.
01MAHMOOD HUSSEIN MATTAN – 1952
Mahmood was hanged for the murder of Lily Volpert, following the statement of a known criminal who was paid by the Volpert family. That witness later tried to kill his own daughter and Mattan was exonerated in 1998.
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