Justice Stevens Says Texas Executed an Innocent Man

In a dis­cus­sion at the University of Florida Law School, for­mer U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens said that recent research reveals that Texas almost cer­tain­ly exe­cut­ed an inno­cent man in 1989. 

Stevens said, ​“Within the last year, Jim Liebman, who’s a pro­fes­sor at the Columbia Law School and was a for­mer law clerk of mine, has writ­ten a book…called The Wrong Carlos…He has demon­strat­ed, I think, beyond a shad­ow of a doubt that there is a Texas case in which they exe­cut­ed the wrong defen­dant, and that the per­son they exe­cut­ed did not in fact com­mit the crime for which he was pun­ished. And I think it’s a suf­fi­cient argu­ment against the death penalty…that soci­ety should not take the risk that that might hap­pen again, because it’s intol­er­a­ble to think that our gov­ern­ment, for real­ly not very pow­er­ful rea­sons, runs the risk of exe­cut­ing inno­cent peo­ple.” Prof. Liebman’s research showed that Carlos DeLuna’s case involved faulty eye­wit­ness tes­ti­mo­ny and police fail­ure to inves­ti­gate an alternative suspect.

Justice Stevens went on to say that he believes the risk of exe­cut­ing the inno­cent is ​“an ade­quate rea­son for abol­ish­ing the death penal­ty, and it should prevail.”