Rates of reversible error and the risk of wrongful execution

Judicature

Volumn 86, Issue 2, 2002, Pages 78-82

  Liebman, James S ^a  

^a The Earth Institute at Columbia University   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0036761406     PISSN: 00225800     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (27)

1. See, e.g., Herrera v. Collins, 506 U.S. 390 (1993); Wiggins v. Corcoran, 288 F.3d 629, 643 (2002) (Wilkinson, C.J., concurring). See generally Hoffmann, Substance and Procedure in Capital Cases: Why Federal Habeas Courts Should Review the Merits of Every Death Sentence, 78 TEX. L. REV. 1771 (2000).
2. See, e.g., Herrera v. Collins, 506 U.S. 390 (1993); Wiggins v. Corcoran, 288 F.3d 629, 643 (2002) (Wilkinson, C.J., concurring). See generally Hoffmann, Substance and Procedure in Capital Cases: Why Federal Habeas Courts Should Review the Merits of Every Death Sentence, 78 TEX. L. REV. 1771 (2000).
3. See, e.g., Herrera v. Collins, 506 U.S. 390 (1993); Wiggins v. Corcoran, 288 F.3d 629, 643 (2002) (Wilkinson, C.J., concurring). See generally Hoffmann, Substance and Procedure in Capital Cases: Why Federal Habeas Courts Should Review the Merits of Every Death Sentence, 78 TEX. L. REV. 1771 (2000).
4. See Lockyer, "Guilt Revisited: A Comparative Perspective on Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States," talk delivered at DNA and Human Rights: An International Conference, University of California, Berkeley (April 27, 2001).
5. Enzinna, Afraid of a Shadow of a Doubt (Oped), Wash. Post, May 7, 2000, at B8. See Masters, Va. Evidence Destroyed Despite Warnings to Clerk, Wash. Post, Oct. 18, 2001, at B3. Bradley, DNA Testing in Crime Cases Causing Distrust in Criminal Justice System, NPR Morning Edition, Aug. 29, 2000, transcript available at 2000 WL 21481402: Farrell, DNA Scrutiny Tests Judicial System, Boston Globe,June 26, 2001, at A1; Green, DNA Tests Not Likely After an Execution: Virginia Opposing Third Request of its Kind, Richmond Times-Dispatch, March 26, 2001, at A1.
6. Enzinna, Afraid of a Shadow of a Doubt (Oped), Wash. Post, May 7, 2000, at B8. See Masters, Va. Evidence Destroyed Despite Warnings to Clerk, Wash. Post, Oct. 18, 2001, at B3. Bradley, DNA Testing in Crime Cases Causing Distrust in Criminal Justice System, NPR Morning Edition, Aug. 29, 2000, transcript available at 2000 WL 21481402: Farrell, DNA Scrutiny Tests Judicial System, Boston Globe,June 26, 2001, at A1; Green, DNA Tests Not Likely After an Execution: Virginia Opposing Third Request of its Kind, Richmond Times-Dispatch, March 26, 2001, at A1.
7. Enzinna, Afraid of a Shadow of a Doubt (Oped), Wash. Post, May 7, 2000, at B8. See Masters, Va. Evidence Destroyed Despite Warnings to Clerk, Wash. Post, Oct. 18, 2001, at B3. Bradley, DNA Testing in Crime Cases Causing Distrust in Criminal Justice System, NPR Morning Edition, Aug. 29, 2000, transcript available at 2000 WL 21481402; Farrell, DNA Scrutiny Tests Judicial System, Boston Globe,June 26, 2001, at A1; Green, DNA Tests Not Likely After an Execution: Virginia Opposing Third Request of its Kind, Richmond Times-Dispatch, March 26, 2001, at A1.
8. Enzinna, Afraid of a Shadow of a Doubt (Oped), Wash. Post, May 7, 2000, at B8. See Masters, Va. Evidence Destroyed Despite Warnings to Clerk, Wash. Post, Oct. 18, 2001, at B3. Bradley, DNA Testing in Crime Cases Causing Distrust in Criminal Justice System, NPR Morning Edition, Aug. 29, 2000, transcript available at 2000 WL 21481402: Farrell, DNA Scrutiny Tests Judicial System, Boston Globe,June 26, 2001, at A1; Green, DNA Tests Not Likely After an Execution: Virginia Opposing Third Request of its Kind, Richmond Times-Dispatch, March 26, 2001, at A1.
9. Enzinna, Afraid of a Shadow of a Doubt (Oped), Wash. Post, May 7, 2000, at B8. See Masters, Va. Evidence Destroyed Despite Warnings to Clerk, Wash. Post, Oct. 18, 2001, at B3. Bradley, DNA Testing in Crime Cases Causing Distrust in Criminal Justice System, NPR Morning Edition, Aug. 29, 2000, transcript available at 2000 WL 21481402: Farrell, DNA Scrutiny Tests Judicial System, Boston Globe,June 26, 2001, at A1; Green, DNA Tests Not Likely After an Execution: Virginia Opposing Third Request of its Kind, Richmond Times-Dispatch, March 26, 2001, at A1.
10. Bedau and Radelet, Miscarriages of Justice in Potentially Capital Cases, 40 Stan. L. Rev. 21 (1987); Markman and Cassell, Protecting the Innocent: A Response to the Bedau-Radelet Study, 41 Stan. L. Rev. 121 (1988); Bedau and Radelet, The Myth of Infallibility: A Reply to Markman and Cassell, 41 Stan. L. Rev. 161 (1988).
11. Bedau and Radelet, Miscarriages of Justice in Potentially Capital Cases, 40 Stan. L. Rev. 21 (1987); Markman and Cassell, Protecting the Innocent: A Response to the Bedau-Radelet Study, 41 Stan. L. Rev. 121 (1988); Bedau and Radelet, The Myth of Infallibility: A Reply to Markman and Cassell, 41 Stan. L. Rev. 161 (1988).
12. Bedau and Radelet, Miscarriages of Justice in Potentially Capital Cases, 40 Stan. L. Rev. 21 (1987); Markman and Cassell, Protecting the Innocent: A Response to the Bedau-Radelet Study, 41 Stan. L. Rev. 121 (1988); Bedau and Radelet, The Myth of Infallibility: A Reply to Markman and Cassell, 41 Stan. L. Rev. 161 (1988).
13. See, e.g., Statement of William G. Otis before the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, Concerning "Protecting the Innocent: Proposals to Reform the Death Penalty," June 18, 2002.
14. See United States v. Quinones, No. S3 00 Cr. 761 (JSR) (July 1, 2002), at 21-22 & n.11 (listing relevant cases).
15. See, e.g., Liebman, The Overproduction of Death, 100 Colum. L. Rev. 2030, 2048-51 n.84 (2000) (collecting sources).
16. AP, O'Connor Questions Death Penalty, New York Times, July 4, 2001, at 9.
17. United States v. Quinones, supra n. 6, at 2, 21.
18. My colleagues, to whom I am indebted for much of the analysis in this piece, are Jeffrey Fagan, Andrew Gelman, Valerie West, Alexander Kiss, and Garth Davies.
19. See, e.g., Abernathy, et al., A Stitch in Time: Lean Retailing and the Transformation of Manufacturing-Lessons From the Apparel and Textile Industries (New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, 1999).
20. See, e.g., Markman and Cassell, supra, n. 4, at 159.
21. 47 = 41 reversed on direct review + 6 reversed on state post-conviction review (.10 × the 59 that survived direct review.
22. 68 = 47 reversed by the state courts + 21 reversed by federal courts (.40 x the 53 that survived state court review). See Liebman, Fagan, Gelman, West, Kiss and Davies, A Broken System, Part II: Why, There Is So Much Error in Capital Cases, and What Can Be Done About It, http://www.law.columbia.edu/brokensystem2/ (Feb. 11, 2002), at 9, 19.
23. Id. at 11-81.
24. Id. at 337-390.
25. See id. at 376-386.
26. For example, after controlling for other factors, state court reversal rates decrease if the verdict is from a rural community (where the smaller number of such verdicts make the reversal of any one of them more controversial than in urban communities) or the reviewing court has a large, potentially controversial backlog of capital verdicts awaiting inspection. See id. at 194, 218-219, 333-334, 354-356, 367-369.
27. See id. at 391-421.