Examples Of Wrongful Convictions

Are people today being wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death? Today, there are 3,000 people on death row (Drehle). This means 3,000 inmates are waiting for their day to be executed or waiting for their date of execution to be set. According to a recent study, “120 of the roughly 3,000 inmates on death row in America might not be guilty, while additional scores of wrongfully convicted inmates are serving life in prison” (Drehle). People convicted of a crime and sentenced to death or life in prison may not have done the crime, but not much is being about the wrongful convictions. The only thing being done is a posthumous pardon. Three examples of wrongful execution are the executions of Cameron Todd Willingham, Claude Jones, and Carlos De Luna Cameron Todd Willingham was executed at the Texas State Penitentiary on Feb. 16, 2004 for murdering his three daughters by setting his house on fire. Willingham was convicted based on faulty forensic science and an inmate's testimony that stated Willingham confessed to the killing while in jail. The prosecution determined that the fire was deliberately set based on burn patterns, laboratory tests, and the area of the house where the fire started. …show more content…
The investigators did the best that they could with the technology they had, but new technology is available and with its help independent investigations are finding convicts innocent. The state's should do something with the new findings instead of having innocent people be killed. The least the state can do is give the families some type of closer and give the wrongfully executed a posthumous pardon. It seems like Texas is the state with the greatest problem with killing innocent people, so maybe the problem has a simpler solution. Maybe Texas courts may just need to be reviewed to ensure proper and right