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Articles — Innocence

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  • Innocence
  • D. Grann, ​“Trial by Fire: Did Texas Execute an Innocent Man?” The New Yorker, Sept. 7, 2009; Press Release, The Innocence Project, Aug. 31, 2009.
  • W. Sessions, ​“DNA Evidence and the Death Penalty,” Jurist, May 30, 2007
  • Maurice Possley and Steve Mills. ​“Did this man die…for this man’s crime?” The Chicago Tribune. June 25 – 27, 2006.
  • “Forensics Under the Microscope” Chicago Tribune, October 17, 2004 — March 10, 2006
  • Tom Lowenstein, ​“Snitch Work,” Philadelphia City Paper, June 17 – 24, 2004. Tom Lowenstein reveals how two inmates may be respon­si­ble for an inno­cent man on death row.
  • Jagger, Bianca. ​“Grant Zeigler an Opportunity to Prove his Innocence.” Miami Herald, December 28, 2004
  • “Restoring Justice” Chicago Tribune, September 29, 2002 — October 3, 2002 (edi­to­r­i­al series). Chicago Tribune edi­to­r­i­al writer Cornelia Grumman was award­ed the Pulitzer Prize for these influ­en­tial edi­to­ri­als on the death penal­ty in Illinois. The prize came just days after reforms of the crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem passed both cham­bers of the Illinois General Assembly. The 5‑part series of edi­to­ri­als about the crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem in Illinois included:
    • “Fixing the death penal­ty” — Advances in DNA tech­nol­o­gy in recent years have exposed aston­ish­ing fail­ings in the Illinois crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem. (September 29, 2002).
    • “Disparities on Death Row” — Donald Quickle slipped a ski mask over his head before dri­ving up at clos­ing time to Sheba’s II, a road­side tav­ern in Creve Coeur. Quickle was there to rob the cash reg­is­ter. (October 1, 2002).
    • “Narrowing the wig­gle room” — In 1984 a Chicago gang mem­ber named Gilbert ​“Blue Eyes” Perez slammed his car into anoth­er car on the Northwest Side. Perez, who was drunk, tried to get away from the acci­dent, and three peo­ple who were dri­ving by the scene offered to help him.(October 2, 2002).
    • “The future of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment” — In mid-November Illinois law­mak­ers will have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to restruc­ture the crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem, to demon­strate that they under­stand a sys­tem that has bred wrong­ful con­vic­tions, false con­fes­sions, mis­tak­en eye­wit­ness­es and oth­er out­rages can­not be allowed to stand (October 3, 2002).
  • “Arizona should end death penal­ty” Arizona Republic, July 28, 2002 (edi­to­r­i­al).
  • Cohen, Sharon and Hastings, Deborah, ​“For 110 inmates freed by DNA tests, true free­dom remains elu­sive” Associated Press, May 28, 2002.
  • “Cops and Confessions,” Chicago Tribune (inves­tiga­tive series), December 16, 2001 — January 6, 2002.
  • “More Death Penalty Doubts” USA Today, July 5, 2001 (edi­to­r­i­al).
  • Mills, Steve, Possley, Maurice, and Armstrong, Ken, ​“Shadows of Doubt Haunt Executions: 3 cas­es weak­en under scruti­ny” Chicago Tribune, December 17, 2000 (part 1 of 2).
  • Mills, Steve, ​“Questions of Innocence: Legal road­blocks thwart new evi­dence on appeal” Chicago Tribune, December 18, 2000 (part 2 of 2).
  • “Death Row and DNA” The Washington Post, December 16, 2000 (edi­to­r­i­al).
  • Masters, Brooke A., ​“Missteps On Road To Injustice” The Washington Post, December 1, 2000.
  • O’Neill, Helen,“How DNA Became a Perfect Witness” The Toronto Star, September 21, 2000.
  • Clines, Francis X, ​“New DNA Tests Are Seen as Key to Virginia Case” New York Times, September 7, 2000.
  • O’Brien, Tim, ​“Reasonable Doubt and DNA” The Washington Post, September 7, 2000.
  • “Through Thick and Thin: On Death Row, Two Men Defied Odds With Friendship and Hope”, ABC NEWS​.com, August 19, 2000.
Related News & Developments
Innocence April 9, 2025 Paul House, Death Row Exoneree and Activist, Dies at 63 Innocence March 20, 2025 DPI’s Podcast 12:01 The Death Penalty in Context: Sabrina Butler-Smith on Wrongful Convictions and Motherhood Innocence March 12, 2025 Courts Put Upcoming Texas, Louisiana Executions on Hold Innocence March 5, 2025 Public Officials and Advocates Respond to SCOTUS’ Decision to Overturn Richard Glossip’s Conviction
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For every 8.2 peo­ple exe­cut­ed in the Unit­ed States in the mod­ern era of the death penal­ty, one per­son on death row has been exon­er­at­ed.

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