Innocent Man Freed After 3 Years on Death Row
Feature Story by Teresa Kraly - 8/14/2002
On August 1, 2002 justice was finally served as Larry Osborne walked out of a Kentucky courtroom and was recognized as an innocent man. Osborne spent three years on death row before being exonerated.While Osborne is the first person to be exonerated in Kentucky, he is the 102nd in the nation since 1973 and the fourth in 2002. "As the number of death row exonerees continues to rise, the risk of fatal error within our system becomes increasingly clear," said Richard C. Dieter, Death Penalty Information Center Executive Director. "This is further evidence that our system of capital punishment is so seriously flawed that all executions should be stopped."
Across the nation, mounting concerns about serious flaws in the country's death penalty system have motivated civil rights and abolitionist organizations to focus on the problem.
In addition, the U.S. Supreme Court has issued several decisions this term that call into question aspects of the capital punishment system in America. In Atkins vs. Virginia, the Supreme Court decided that the execution of mentally retarded individuals was unconstitutional. In Ring vs. Arizona, the Court threw out Arizona's death penalty law, holding that juries -- not judges -- must make the final determination about whether a defendant is to be sentenced to death.
Since that decision, the Arizona legislature has endorsed a plan to correct the unconstitutional aspect of the state's death penalty system. Building on this effort, some have called for a more extensive overhaul of Arizona's capital system. However, State Senator Jay Blanchard said debates calling for moratoriums on executions, a judge's review of juries' death sentences, a ban on executions of people who committed their crimes as minors and other reform proposals will have to wait for January, when the Legislature returns for its next regular session.
Doubts about the current death penalty system have also spread to Congress, where the Senate Judiciary Committee approved the Innocence Protection Act on July 18, 2002. The Innocence Protection Act has gained a majority of cosponsors in the House (242), prosecutors and victims have called for its passage, and conservative groups such as the Rutherford Institute have given backing to the bill which would provide increased access to DNA testing and improved counsel standards for capital defense attorneys.
Wayne F. Smith, Executive Director of the Justice Project said, "Recent United States Supreme Court rulings, along with other court decisions, reflect a growing national concern that the administration of the death penalty is unfair. It is no longer a question that the system is unfair and that innocent people are being sentenced to death. The only question is what are we going to do about it?"
