The development and widespread use of DNA testing has revealed a shocking truth: The criminal justice system sends innocent people to prison far more often that anyone had imagined. The National Registry of Exonerations lists 2870 people sent to prison for crimes they did not commit.
The actual number of innocent people behind bars likely is much larger simply because they have no one on the outside willing to spend the time and effort needed to get a court to take another look at a convict's case. Every dog may have his day in court, as the saying goes, but it is a rare dog who gets two.
In the past few decades, a number of law schools have established innocence projects. Attorneys and law students screen requests from prison inmates. When a conviction looks particularly dubious, they take the case.
The various innocence projects have created an innocence network. It now includes 68 innocence organizations in the United States and 10 other countries. To call attention to the number of innocent people still in prison, the Innocence Network designated October 2 "International Wrongful Conviction Day."
Maybe Oklahoma officials are not trying to inflict cruel and unusual psychological punishment on death row inmate Julius Jones but right now he must feel he's riding an emotional roller coaster. As a previous post reported, in 2002, a jury convicted him of murder he consistently has maintained he did not commit.
Lawyers at an innocence project took on his case and an ABC television documentary focused on the efforts to exonerate him. Kim Kardashian also became involved, attracting further public attention to the case.
These developments gave Jones a reason to hope. However, the past three weeks brought ups and downs.
On September 13, the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board voted, 4 to 1, to recommend that the governor commute Jones' sentence from death to life in prison with possibility of parole. At that point, no execution date had been set. But days later, a court scheduled Jones for death on November 18.
The governor had not yet acted on the parole board's recommendation to commute Jones' sentence. So, there was reason to hope.
However, on September 28, the governor announced that he was sending the case back to the parole board for another hearing. The board had conducted a commutation hearing on September 13, but the governor wants the board to conduct a clemency hearing.
There's a difference. Jones did not testify at the commutation hearing. However, he would have that opportunity at a clemency hearing. The board is going to conduct such a hearing this Tuesday, October 5.
Banner based on photo by Teemu Mäntynen, via Wikimedia Commons.
