[FADPUpdate] Innocence Update

Sun May 13 18:27:52 EDT 2007

GOV. CRIST TO DECIDE THIS WEEK WHEN TO RESUME EXECUTIONS
PLEASE ASK HIM NOT TO SIGN NEW DEATH WARRANTS
For More Info: www.FADP.org. "TAKE ACTION"

Friends, 

There has been a flurry of mind-opening developments in the realm of wrongful convictions.  Much of the public is unaware that our legal system is capable of making so many life-shattering and fatal mistakes.

In Florida we have had over 22 exonerations off our Death Row.  Way more than any other state and almost 20% of the nation's total.  How has Florida made so many mistakes?  Have innocent people been executed?  How many more innocent people are on Death Row?  These are questions that deserve answers from our Florida leadership.  A full, open and unbiased investigation into the truth is long overdue.  Denial is not a river that runs through Egypt.  Denial is in Tallahassee. 

Public awareness of the fallibility of our legal system and the resultant risk of executing the innocent (higher in Florida than anywhere else) will give pause to those who continue to support executions.  Perhaps this is why there has been so much resistance in Florida to examining the facts.  The risk of executing the innocent has led The Dallas Morning News, one of the nation's 10 largest newspapers and a staunch supporter of the Death Penalty for over 100 years, to endorse abolition, "The state cannot impose death - an irrevocable sentence - with absolute certainty in all cases.  Therefore the state should not impose it at all."

In the midst of all these revelations of innocence and the well-documented shift of public opinion to alternatives to the Death Penalty, Florida is now poised to re-start executions.  The Governor's spokesperson says he will decide next week when to begin signing Death Warrants.  There are 20 people on our Death Row who are eligible for Death Warrants and 7 more will be soon.  Please keep up the campaign to contact Gov. Crist and ask him not to sign any new Death Warrants.  For more info go to the www.FADP.org website and click on TAKE ACTION.  

The Department of Corrections new Lethal Injection procedures and report are now available at www.FADP.org Click on: FLORIDAS NEW LETHAL INJECTION PROCEDURES.

Shine the light,

Mark

CONTENTS:

NCADP: Innocent and Executed
200th DNA Exoneration
Exoneration in OK
Florida Fingerprint ID Scandal
Wrongful Incarceration Compensation Bill

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Have innocent people been executed?  Read the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty report.

The NCADP report is available at the FADP.org website under "Heres What's Hot!" NCADP REPORT: INNOCENT AND EXECUTED.

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200 innocent people have now been exonerated by DNA evidence of wrongful conviction.  Read the report from the Innocence Project: www.innocenceproject.org. 

DNA exonerations are just the tip of the iceberg.  How many more innocent people are in our prisons and Death Rows.  DNA evidence is only available in 10% of convictions.  DNA exonerations are only an indicator of the extent of problems.  What does that say about all the other convictions?  How many more mistakes have there been?

There have been 6 DNA exonerations in Florida thus far.  The Florida DNA exonerations include: Frank Lee Smith who died after 14 years on Death Row, Alan Crotzer - 24 years of a 130 year sentence, Wilton Dedge - 22 years of a life sentence, Orlando Boquete -13 years of a 50 year sentence, Luis Diaz - 25 years of multiple life sentences, and Jerry Frank Townsend - 21 years of 7 life sentences.

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Curtis McCarty exonerated after 21 years in prison---16 on Oklahoma's Death Row.

http://www.innocenceproject.org/Content/575.php

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Seminole County Crime Lab Scandal

There are many explanations as to how Florida has wrongfully convicted so many innocent people.  The FDLE is investigating botched fingerprint ID's from the Seminole County Sheriff's Office that helped convict people, including one man now on Death Row.  Like this week's exoneration hearing in Oklahoma revealed, there is evidence that fingerprints may have been falsely identified in order to gain convictions.  The need to investigate all of Florida's wrongful convictions is clear and immediate.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/seminole/orl-fingerprint1107may11,0,1291472.story?coll=orl-news-headlines-seminole

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Wrongful Incarceration Compensation Bill Dies

Alan Crotzer, cleared by DNA evidence after 24 years in prison, and many other wrongfully incarcerated Floridians were deeply disappointed that a bill to compensate them for their time in prison was not passed again this year.  It is inhumane and unconscionable that Florida gives absolutely nothing to those it wrongfully convicts and sends to prison and Death Row.  Responsibility and accountability?  Governor Charlie Crist worked hard to do the right thing on this, but both the House and the Senate failed in their responsibility.

Once again, FADP has joined others to press the Florida Legislature to compensate the wrongfully convicted and a conduct complete and thorough investigation into these mistakes.  This will be a focus of this year's actions.

http://www.sptimes.com/2007/05/02/State/Two_wrongs_one_is_rep.shtml

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Our nation is turning away from executions.  It is up to Floridians to move our beloved state forward into the light of reason, justice and truth.  It will be done.  It has to be done.

---Mark

Mark Elliott
Director, Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, FADP.org
2840 W. Bay Drive, #118
Belleair Bluffs, FL 33770 
(727) 215-9646
 mark at fadp.org

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."
"The time is always right to do what is right."
Martin Luther King

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