In Florida, where yet another Governor Bush is in power, Circuit Judge Robert P. Cates recently overturned the sentence of a man condemned to die in 1993, the twenty-first time a wrongful conviction and death sentence has been overturned in that state. Nationally, it marked the eighty-seventh reversal of a false conviction and death sentence since the death penalty was reinstated. Actual Innocence combines legal precedent, scholarly studies, case histories, research statistics, and anecdotal information to paint a vivid portrait of the issues surrounding the wrongful convictions of sixty-two men whose innocence was later conclusively proven through the use of DNA testing. Confessions are forced, coerced, or fabricated. Lab tests are wrong and sometimes rigged.
Racism asphyxiates the truth.
Defense lawyers sleep or stagger drunk or stoned through trials. Statistically, these factors have proven to make little difference to juries in death penalty cases, who return a guilty verdict and death sentence in more than 80 percent of cases in which prosecutors request this sentence. But the new information coming to light with the increasing use of DNA testing is severely compromising the system's presumption of guilt. In fact, they believe the impact is just beginning to be felt. A U.S. Department of Justice report states that police departments around the country now routinely send DNA samples to FBI labs for potential matching in most rape and rape-murder cases.