On October 11, 2024 the Embassies of France and Germany hosted a discussion on the question of innocence and the death penalty at the residence of the French Ambassador in Washington, D.C. Panelists included Herman Lindsey, a death row exoneree and Executive Director of Witness to Innocence; Vanessa Potkin, Director of Special Litigation at the Innocence Project; and Emmjolee Mendoza Waters, Director of the Death Penalty Abolition Program at Catholic Mobilizing Network. The approximately 75 people who attended the event included representatives from several embassies as well as members of the public. The conversation was moderated by Robin Maher, Executive Director of the Death Penalty Information Center.
Ms. Potkin discussed her work on behalf of several death-sentenced prisoners with credible evidence of innocence. They include Marcellus Williams, who was executed in Missouri on September 24th, and Robert Roberson, a death-sentenced man who faces execution in Texas on October 17th, despite expert testimony and evidence that no crime occurred in his case. She described some of the many challenges that innocent prisoners face on appeal, including the unwillingness of prosecutors to admit mistakes and their focus on “winning” instead of securing a just result. Other prosecutors, she explained, oppose DNA testing, and many courts refuse to order access to DNA testing, denying prisoners a meaningful opportunity to develop life-saving evidence. Ms. Potkin noted that even when so-called “progressive” prosecutors have supported new trials or sentences in innocence cases, they have sometimes been overruled by other state officials. As an example, she cited the interference by Missouri’s Attorney General to prevent a plea deal, supported by the local prosecutor, that would have removed Mr. Williams from death row.
Mr. Lindsey, who was released from Florida’s death row fifteen years ago, spoke about the lasting trauma of being wrongfully accused and then convicted and sentenced to death. He said juries must be better informed before they are asked to make difficult life and death decisions in capital cases. Mr. Lindsey also spoke emotionally about being “grateful” for his experience and feeling “chosen” to share his experience with the public so that they can better understand the plight of innocent people who are sentenced to death.
Ms. Mendoza Waters described recent changes in public opinion and declining support for the death penalty. She noted that the stories of innocent people on death row are attracting increasing attention and resulting in greater public engagement. More than 1.5 million people signed petitions urging clemency for Marcellus Williams, and Ms. Mendoza Waters said that the unusual attention his case received created an opportunity for people to understand the serious flaws in use of the death penalty. She also described the death penalty as a fundamental right to life issue, and noted that Pope Francis recently tweeted the position of the Catholic Church that “[t]he right to life is threatened in those places where the death penalty is legal.”
Questions from the audience included inquiries about what reforms would best protect innocent people, and the effect of electoral politics on death penalty outcomes. The Death Penalty Information Center recently released a report on the latter subject, “Lethal Election: How the U.S. Electoral Politics Increases the Arbitrariness of the Death Penalty.”
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