Mead Shumway of Nebraska, was convicted of the first degree murder of his employer's
wife on circumstantial evidence and sentenced to death by jury. His last words before
his execution were: "I am an innocent man. May God forgive everyone who said
anything against me." The next year, the victim's husband confessed on his deathbed
that he [the husband] had murdered his [own] wife (Radelet, Bedau, Putnam 347).
There are an uncertain numerous amount of incidents similar to the one depicted
above, that have repeatedly occurred throughout the course of history. Two highly
distinguishable figures in the area of capital punishment in the United States, Hugo
Bedau and Michael Radelet, discovered in 1992, at least 140 cases, since 1990, in
which innocent persons were sentenced to death (Hook and Kahn 92). In Illinois alone,
12 death row inmates have been cleared and freed since 1987 (Execution
Reconsidered). The most conclusive evidence in support of this "comes from the
surprisingly large numbers of people whose convictions have been overturned and who
have been freed from death" (Bedau 345). One out of every seven people sentenced to
death row are innocent (Civiletti). That's nearly 15%.
The numbers are disturbing. Innocent people are becoming victims of the United States
judicial system by its overlooked imperfections. A former president of the American Bar
Association (ABA), John J. Curtin Jr., said it best when he told a congressional
committee that "Whatever you think about the death penalty, a system that will take
life must first give justice. Execute justice, not people." Though some of the innocent
death row inmates have managed to escape their execution, there are numerous others
who are unable to overturn their sentence through appeals. Many cases of innocence
go unheard and result in the unfortunate fatality of an innocent bystander. When th...