Reggie Clemons has been on Missouri​’s death row for 19 years for the mur­der of two young white women. He has already come close to exe­cu­tion, and one of the co-defen­dants in the case has been exe­cut­ed. Clemons’ con­vic­tion was based part­ly on his con­fes­sion to rape that he says was beat­en out of him by the police. Other tes­ti­mo­ny against Clemons came from his co-defen­dants. Of the four men charged with the mur­ders, three were black and one was white. The white co-defen­dant is already out on parole. Because of doubts that have arisen about the valid­i­ty of his con­vic­tion, a spe­cial hear­ing will be held on September 17 to deter­mine whether cru­cial errors were made in pros­e­cut­ing Clemons. The spe­cial mas­ter pre­sid­ing at the hear­ing will then present a rec­om­men­da­tion to the Missouri Supreme Court. Clemons’ lawyers are expect­ed to present new evi­dence that sup­ports his asser­tion that he was phys­i­cal­ly beat­en into mak­ing a con­fes­sion, and that the coerced con­fes­sion should not have been admit­ted at tri­al. Other issues like­ly to be raised include the prosecution’s fail­ure to dis­close a rape kit to defense lawyers, and that the man­ner in which the jury was select­ed was lat­er ruled uncon­sti­tu­tion­al. (Ed Pilkington of The Guardian dis­cuss­es his inves­ti­ga­tion into the case in the accompanying video.)

A rel­a­tive of the vic­tims’ fam­i­ly, Jeanine Cummins, said both young women were adamant­ly opposed to the death penal­ty. Cummins her­self believes the death penal­ty should be abol­ished because it only brings fur­ther suf­fer­ing to fam­i­lies such as hers who have already been through so much.

(E. Pilkington, ​“Death penal­ty on tri­al: should Reggie Clemons live or die?,” The Guardian (London), August 21, 2012). See Arbitrariness and Innocence. Listen to DPIC’s pod­cast on Victims.

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