More than 130 inmates have been executed since Mr. Bush's election. Graham was convicted on the basis of the testimony of one eyewitness. Other witnesses who weren't heard at trial insist he was not the man who killed Bobby Lambert.
Somebody is obviously mistaken.
Graham may well have been innocent, but just as the witness who identified him may be wrong, so too may be the witnesses who say he wasn't the killer. In other words, it is impossible to prove that Graham didn't commit the crime. Except for cases where DNA evidence is available, it is virtually never possible to prove someone didn't commit a crime. Over the past 25 years, more than 75 men have been released from death row nationwide - but no more than a handful of those have been shown not to have committed the crime for which they were sent to death row. A defense attorney in a death-penalty case has three distinct tasks, which correspond to the three phases of a capital trial.