Sentenced to death for crimes they did not commit: the men who lived to tell the tale!

LongTomH

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Wed Nov-14-07 12:49 PM
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Sentenced to death for crimes they did not commit: the men who lived to tell the tale!

Three men who were sentenced to die, but were exonerated, testified at at UN forum on the death penalty.

From The Guardian American:

div class="excerpt"]Amnesty International brought the men together in New York before a hearing of the human rights committee of the UN tomorrow that will call for a moratorium on executions around the world as a first step towards abolishing the death penalty. It is the ultimate argument, the campaign believes - the testimony of individuals who managed to survive the system, but who came close to being killed despite their innocence.

div class="excerpt"]Venezuela became the first country to remove the death penalty in 1853, and the abolition movement has grown, with 133 states members. Britain abolished the penalty in 1967. As countries drop away, attention focuses on the remaining practitioners.

div class="excerpt"]Last year at least 1,591 people were put to death in 25 nations, but 91% of those were executed in six countries: China, Iran, Pakistan, Iraq, Sudan and the US. China is known to have executed more than 1,000 prisoners in 2006, but the real figure may be closer to 8,000. Twelve US states put a total of 53 people to death last year, but the practice has fallen to its lowest level in a decade after the supreme court decided to hear arguments about the humanity of the lethal injection method.

div class="excerpt"]The UN resolution, backed by 72 countries including the 27-nation EU, has no power to enforce a moratorium, but it is seen by campaigners as a chance to apply pressure for reform on those countries teetering on abolition.

The stories of the three men are gripping; each of them spent years waiting to die, knowing they were innocent. All of them were convicted on the flimsiest of evidence. One was convicted of killing a man who was actually still alive and attended the defendant's trial. Another was convicted on the word of a corrupt cop who wanted to prevent the man from testifying against him.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2210490,00.html

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