The 153 Exonerations in 2023 Include 19 Resulting From Threats or Sentences of Death
by Casey J. Bastian
The Death Penalty Policy Project (“DP3”) analyzed exoneration data compiled by the National Registry of Exonerations (“NRE”) for 2023. The results are disturbing. Another 153 convicted people were exonerated. At least 19 resulted from either them or a witness being threatened with death. A total of 570 years of life was taken from these 153 innocent human beings. All resulting from major misconduct by police or prosecutors.
DP3’s review of the use of threats or pursuit of death penalty sentences revealed an interesting fact pattern. Though geographically diverse, the counties found to be responsible for the most abusive police and prosecutorial practices were quite concentrated. It is only a handful of “repeat offender” justice systems. Prosecutors pursued the death penalty against 13 innocent defendants in Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Pennsylvania. In four other cases, it was a witness who had been threatened with death. These prosecutors needed testimony – even if it must be perjured. In Illinois, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, prosecutors secured murder convictions with the use of this coerced, perjured testimony. In one case, prosecutors utilized the product of a coercive interrogation (i.e., a “confession”) that “included suggestions that a sibling could face the death penalty.”
Threats of death were also obscenely used in two other Illinois cases to secure wrongful convictions. In one, a defense witness was threatened. In the other, the co-defendant of a 16-year-old girl was convicted by perjured testimony and sentenced to death.
Data verify that the “correlation between a jurisdiction’s overuse of the death penalty and the unreliability of its resulting capital convictions is well established.” There is also a firm link between identified systemic official misconduct and a “county’s history of aggressive death penalty usage.” Five counties accounted for 15 of these wrongful convictions. These counties include: Cook County (Chicago) (seven cases), Cuyahoga County (Cleveland) (one), Oklahoma County (Oklahoma City) (one), Orleans Parish (New Orleans) (two), and Philadelphia County (Philadelphia) (four).
Since 1972, after states resumed executions in the wake of Furman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238 (1972), “40 of the 190 death-row exonerations” arose in these counties. Race seems to be inextricably intertwined with this form of injustice. Sixteen of those convicted through threats of death were of color: Black (10) and Hispanic (six); death was imposed on four others, three being of color: Black (two) and Hispanic (one).
The four men sentenced to death spent decades in prison before being exonerated. John Huffington (Maryland) wasn’t pardoned for 42 years. When the convictions against Glynn Simmons (Oklahoma, 48 years incarcerated), Noel Montalvo (Pennsylvania, 20 years), and Jesse Johnson (Oregon, 19 years) were overturned, the prosecutors magnanimously “dropped charges.” These prosecutors had gotten their pound of flesh – but what price shall they pay?
In Cook County, prosecutors sought the death penalty against Francisco Benitez, Lee Harris, and Carl Reed. Benitez and Harris went to trial, receiving life without parole and 90 years in prison, respectively. Reed would falsely confess and receive 27 years in prison. In Philadelphia, Kevin Bowman, Anthony Reid, and Gerald Howell were all exonerated after having been sentenced to life without parole. The same occurred with Larry Moses and Darrill Henry in Orleans Parish, and it happened to Frank Gable in Marion County, Oregon.
The work of the NRE is revealing conduct that has been hidden for years. How many innocent people were wrongfully executed? How many years of human life were stolen by overzealous agents of law enforcement? When will we decide enough is enough? We must turn this knowledge into power while demanding accountability for those whose “mistakes” (conveniently are always made in favor of the prosecution) are too consequential to overlook any longer. Prosecutors have a duty to secure justice, not convictions at any cost. We say: No more wrongful convictions!
Source: substack.com
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