In 2006, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia wrote a dissenting opinion that there was not “a single case, not one, in which it is clear that a person was executed for a crime he did not commit.” This assertion outraged many in the death penalty abolition movement whose experience told them otherwise.
In response to Justice Scalia’s proclamation, the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty published a report entitled Innocent and Executed: Four Chapters in the Life and Death of America’s Death Penalty. This report examines the work done by investigative journalists and newspapers with the assistance of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the Justice Project, the Innocence Project, and others.
Innocent and Executed summarizes four cases involving the apparent execution of innocent people. The report has a brief introduction by National Coalition Executive Director, Diann Rust-Tierney, and two pages of information about each of the four cases.
It is powerful and compelling reading. You can download the full twelve-page report.