A recent arti­cle in the New York Times high­light­ed the sto­ry of Kirk Bloodsworth, who was the first death row inmate in the coun­try to be exon­er­at­ed by DNA test­ing. Bloodsworth, a for­mer Marine, was sen­tenced to death in 1984 for the rape and mur­der of a 9‑year-old girl out­side of Baltimore, Maryland. After DNA evi­dence led to his exon­er­a­tion and release in 1993, Bloodsworth began work­ing against cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment and for jus­tice reform. ​“If it could hap­pen to me, it could hap­pen to any­body,” he told the reporter. He is now the advo­ca­cy direc­tor for Witness to Innocence, an orga­ni­za­tion of exon­er­at­ed death row inmates who sup­port each oth­er and work to repeal cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. Bloodsworth has returned to Maryland as it con­sid­ers a bill to end the death penal­ty. Advocates for repeal cite the declin­ing use of the death penal­ty as evi­dence that cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment is los­ing sup­port across the coun­try (see NYT charts using DPIC data). Death sen­tences have dropped to the low­est lev­els since cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment was rein­stat­ed in 1976. Five states since 2007 have done away with the death penalty.

(S. Shane, ​“A Death Penalty Fight Comes Home,” New York Times, February 6, 2013). See Innocence and Recent Legislation.

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