Newswise — Utah Senate’s vote to abolish the death penalty reflects a growing bipartisan recognition in some states of the documented flaws of the death penalty, including its high cost, decades-long appeals and faulty lethal injection protocols, an expert in criminal law and the death penalty said.
There is another reason to abolish capital punishment, said Russell Covey, professor of law at Georgia State University College of Law in Atlanta.
“State executions of the guilty sometimes impede exoneration of the innocent,” he said.
Covey pointed to several recent cases that illustrate this, including that of Rodney Lincoln in Missouri, who was charged with murder and assault. Despite tenuous evidence, he was convicted largely on the testimony of an eight-year-old, who survived the attack and picked Lincoln out of a lineup.
Now more than three decades later, the witness believes serial killer Tommy Lynn Sells is the real killer -- not Lincoln, Covey explained.
Details from the crime scenes of murders Sells confessed to are similar to those found in the slaying of her mother. In addition, DNA tests on the hair evidence do not match Lincoln.
“Clarity might have been obtained simply by questioning Sells about the incident,” Covey said.
Sells confessed to numerous killings from his death row cell, helping clear up several cold cases.
“But that option is no longer available because Sells was executed in 2014,” the professor added.
This may seem like an anomaly, but it’s not, Covey said.
Post-conviction DNA testing has exonerated 337 persons to date, and also identified 140 actual perpetrators whose DNA is recorded in the database. As of the start of the year, there were 2,943 prisoners on death row.
“Given what we have learned as a result of DNA exonerations, it is almost certain that some of them committed additional crimes for which other innocent persons have been convicted,” Covey said.
In some cases, it may be difficult to argue that offenders do not “deserve” to die for their crimes—“but there are more considerations than simple blameworthiness to consider,” Covey said.
“For the wrongly convicted, the search for truth is never-ending, and sometimes the answers lie in the hearts and minds of convicted, and indisputably guilty, criminals," he said. "If we execute those with the darkest secrets, we make it that much harder for the innocent to find the light,” he said.
Russell D. Covey, professor of law, focuses his research on criminal law and procedure. He is the author of numerous articles on topics including the death penalty, police interrogation, crime and popular culture, jury selection, and plea bargaining. For more information about Covey, including links to publications, visit http://law.gsu.edu/profile/russell-d-covey.
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