WASHINGTON — A U.S. district court judge has given the Justice Department just over two weeks to convince him not to rule that the federal death penalty is an unconstitutional denial of the Fifth Amendment right to “due process.”
Judge Jed S. Rakoff of the U.S. Court for the Southern District of New York has described cases of death row inmates being freed by DNA evidence as proving that innocent people have been and could be executed.
Although the Supreme Court ruled 5–4 in 1993 that the death penalty was constitutional, because the probability of an innocent person being executed was “remote,” Rakoff noted that much has changed since that time.
Based in part on a review of Internet news reports of death row inmates being freed by DNA evidence, Rakoff said science could save the lives of accused criminals “only if such persons are still alive to be released.”
Share with others: