Tennessee Death Penalty Fact Sheet
Innocence

Because human beings administer the death penalty system and because human beings are fallible, innocent people may have been executed in the past and will continue to be executed in the future.

"If statistics are any indication, the system may well be allowing some innocent defendants to be executed." - Justice Sandra Day O’Connor

The National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty published a report in 2006 titled Innocent and Executed which details the cases of four executed individuals who were most likely innocent including Ruben Cantu, Cameron Todd Willingham, and Carlos De Luna who were all executed in Texas as well as Larry Griffin who was executed in Missouri.

Since 1973, more than 129 people in 26 states have been released from death rows across the USA after evidence of their wrongful convictions emerged.

In April 2002, Ray Krone became the 100th prisoner to be released from death row since 1973. Mr. Krone spent 10 years in prison in Arizona, including time on death row, for a murder he did not commit. DNA testing finally proved his innocence.

The exonerations of 13 Illinois death row inmates led Governor George Ryan to declare a moratorium on executions in the State of Illinois. Calling the death penalty process "arbitrary and capricious, and therefore immoral," Gov. Ryan cleared Illinois’ death row in January 2003, commuting 167 condemned inmates’ sentences to life in prison.

TENNESSEE CASES

In 2007, Michael McCormick was found not guilty in a new trial after spending 15 years on Tennessee’s death row after DNA evidence did not match McCormick.

Paul House was on Tennessee’s death row for 23 years though evidence (including DNA) discovered in the 1990’s indicated his innocence. In 2006 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that "this is the rare case where—had the jury heard all conflicting testimony—it is more likely than not that no reasonable juror would have lacked reasonable doubt." In other words, Paul House would not be found guilty in a fair trial with all the evidence properly introduced.

Factors leading to wrongful convictions include: