|
The latest discussion about Death Penalty aroused at 11. February 2001 as Earl Washington Jr. could leave the prison in Virginia after 18 years in prison and after 10 years in Death Row. Already in 1994, his innocence could be proved by a DNS - test, but because of another criminal act, the administrative body needed a lot of time with his liberation.
Earl Washington Jr. is not the first US - citizen whose execution could be prohibited.
Ten times, a DNS - test saved the peoples lives. Very often prisoners only get a second chance, because of media or because abolitionists determined for their own to prove peoples innocence.
This case is paradigmatic because of the fact that the administrative body didn't want to avow their fault. Washington was sentenced to death in 1984 because of killing and rape. In 1985 he was nearly executed. Already in 1988 a blood probation showed his innocence.
But only in 1994, the governor of this time, Douglas Wilder, decided to pardon Washington, but instead of letting him out of prison, he changed Death Penalty in life imprisonment. In October 2000 the new governor was forced to exonerate Washington.
Since 1977, Illinois has executed 13 innocent people, as DNS - tests show.
This shocking number arranged the governor of Illinois to stop the execution and to think Death Penalty over. He explained " We're one of 38 states which have Death Penalty.
But I don't think that we need it, and I don't think that society in the states without Death Penalty is so much worse."
The first position in executing people keeps Texas, where under the last governor, George W. Bush, today's President of the US, more than 150 people were executed.
This is more than in any other federal state.
|
