BARRY SCHECK: I think that our work has had a profound effect on perceptions of capital
punishment by everyone in the United States and, frankly, across the world.
BARRY SCHECK: It's just extraordinary.
BARRY SCHECK: Nobody ever believed that there was this great a risk of convicting an innocent
person, much less executing them.
And now the risk of wrongful conviction and execution has been established as much higher
than anybody believed and the debate now about capital punishment in the United States has
changed.
Its not just a moral issue for people because reasonable people can differ as to whether
the death penalty is a morally appropriate sanction for the most heinous of crimes, but
nobody believes that you oughta execute an innocent person.
That's a non-starter as a moral question and now we know that that's a significant risk,
so that's point one.
Point two an the National Academy of Sciences just recently produced another report on this..there's
no..there's no sound proof that this deters.
Capital punishment does not deter.
Just take the state of California.
In the state of California it takes 26 years between a death sentence and an execution.
They've had very few executions in the state.
Most people die of old age in prisons.
Now, how does that help family members of a murder victim who want closure, if you believe
that it really does bring closure, some do some don't, but 26 years?
If you believe it deters, although the evidence is clear it doesn't, how do you get deterrence
if it takes 26 years?
Even if you're one of those people who believe in retribution that' a morally appropriate
sanction, if it's not instituted for 26 years it's not achieving anybody's purpoe.
And uh..and it's also incredibly expensive.
So, in the state of California they estimate over the next 5 years it would cost them a
billion dollars to continue with the death penalty.
BARRY SCHECK: So we now have on the ballot in the state of California a referendum to
repeal capital punishment..um..in that state.
And, you know, the campaign is led by Jeanne Woodford who was the warden at San Quentin,
who presided over executions, who was once head of the department of corrections in the
state of California.
The individual who brought the referedum years ago, was the sponsor of it, now says it was
a terrible mistake.
You know, pro-capital punishment judges are saying, "this system is broken.
You should support the referendum and repeal it."
Just in the last 5 years, state after state, the state legislatures have said,"look, it's
not an issue of whether you think capital punishment is a morally appropriate sanction
because if you do public opinion polling, 60-65% of the people believe that, 30-35%
believe it's immoral for the state to kill.
But, where people are coming together now is the punishment of life without the possibility
of parole verses the death penalty.
And then all of a sudden the public opinion polling is about 50-50 and then if you add
in this in California, the incredible expense of this, and then you begin to realize if
we put all our money into this capital punishment system that doesn't deter, that can't get
things right, that has a risk of executing the innocent..and then you..uh..take that
money, that criminal justice dollar, and you put it into so many of our innocence reforms,
for example, that not only protect the innocent but help law enforcement catch the guilty,
whether it's better forensic science, or eye witness reform, or videotaping interrogations,
we're safer spending that money..uh..on these other pursuits rather than on the death penalty,
which is so problematic.
But if that happens in California, after you have this whole trend of 5 states in 5 years,
and then California..there are a number of other states that are on the verge.
The governor of Oregon has said he thinks the system is broken.
He won't execute anybody.
So there's quite a few states that I think are in play and if you get up to 10 11 you
can't just have the death penalty for a few states that are the ones that do the most
executions.
You know, for Texas or Virginia.
You just can't..uh..you just can't have it for just a few states and I think under those
circumstances the United States Supreme Court will invalidate it under the 8th Ammendment.
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