Wrongful Convictions: A New Exoneration Registry Tests Stubborn Judges
By Andrew Cohen
May 21 2012, 10:42 AM ET 62 A recent tally shows that hundreds of Americans have been imprisoned for crimes they didn’t commit.
Reuters
EVOLUTIONS
Last Friday, The New York Times published a memorable story about a man, Dr. Robert L. Spitzer, who came late in life to regret an episode that marks his legacy as one of the nation’s most famous and controversial psychiatrists. In 2003, the Times‘ reported, Dr. Spitzer had undertaken “a poorly conceived” investigation “that supported the use of so-called reparative therapy to ‘cure’ homosexuality.” Now, nine years later and wracked by Parkinson’s Disease, Dr. Spitzer decided it was time to recant. “I believe,” he wrote in the same journal in which the 2003 piece had appeared, “I owe the gay community an apology.”
The story is notable, sadly, in part because it seems so rare these days for public officials, or even public figures, to acknowledge the evolution of their beliefs, to publicly recognize their capacity to learn through life’s experiences, and to candidly admit that they were once wrong. A basic lesson we teach our children — learn from your mistakes! — is subsumed by the cynical priorities and pressures we feel all around us as adults.
Study: 2,000 Convicted Then Exonerated in 23 Years
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: May 21, 2012 at 12:11 AM ET
WASHINGTON (AP) — More than 2,000 people who were falsely convicted of serious crimes have been exonerated in the United States in the past 23 years, according to a new archive compiled at two universities.
There is no official record-keeping system for exonerations of convicted criminals in the country, so academics set one up. The new national registry, or database, painstakingly assembled by the University of Michigan Law School and the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University School of Law, is the most complete list of exonerations ever compiled.
Columbia Human Rights Law Review Website – Did Texas Execute an Innocent Man?
Check out this new comprehensive website called “Los Tocayos Carlos” about the possible wrongful execution of Carlos De Luna in Texas.