Wrongfully Convicted Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Wrongfully Convicted - Assignment Example The opponents of capital punishment have therefore cited wrongful executions as their arguments since it does not result into justice if indeed the convicted or executed person is later found to be innocent (Huff & Killias, 62). However, with the advancements in technology, there is relief to this problem as the crimes and criminals are being identified in a more accurate manner in which even those who had been convicted in the past have been released from the prisons and escaped the death sentences. Research has shown that in the United States of America, the use of DNA technology has resulted into the exoneration and the setting free of up to 15 inmates who were serving death penalty since the year 1992 (Zedeck, 27). It is however important to note that a number of individuals have also been released due to weak cases or innocent individuals convicted and the people who are supposed to be convicted set free (Huff & Killias, 65). The death penalty information center has also publish ed certain names of individuals who have been executed but are likely to be innocent if thorough investigations are done to authenticate their involvement in the crimes that they are alleged to have committed. This is not different from the other nations in Europe and other parts of the world. For example, in the United Kingdom, criminal cases review commission has reported that there are several individuals who have actually been pardoned and other several exonerations for individuals who had been executed during the time between 1950s and 1960s. It is therefore important to note that there is need to standardize the DNA evidence so as to serve as the basis for exonerations of individuals who have been wrongfully convicted as a process to deliver justice to them. One example of those who were wrongfully convicted and executed in the United States of America is Jesse Tafero. Jesse was convicted in Florida in the year 1976 for the alleged killing of police officer (Ciolino, 28). He w as convicted together witch another person known as Jacobs Sonia. The two were convicted with the murder case alongside drug trafficking. It was alleged that they killed police officers as they escaped the police arrest because of the drugs that they had. The two individuals were then sentenced to death on the basis of the testimonies by a third party prisoner who pleaded for the les entice if he testified in the case. In the year 1981, the death sentence for Jacob was commuted. However, a year later, Rhodes who testified against the pair asserted that he actually bears the full responsibility of the murder. Tafero on the other hand was executed in the year 1990 despite all these clams by Rhodes. Two years later, the charges against Jacob were squashed which later resulted into her serving imprisonment and not being executed like Tafero. It is important to note that Tafero might have been executed wrongfully and in case the same evidence used in Jacob’s case could have been u sed in his case, he could have been alive as well. Others who are believed to have been wrongfully executed include; Wayne Felker, Cameroon Willingham, Meeks Griffins and Thomas among others who were wrongfully convicted but not executed (Ciolino, 22). In the view of the above, it is clear that the cases of wrongful executions are evident and there is need to look for ways by which these executions can be right executions. With this regard, it is not possible to deliver justice to individuals who have been killed. It is therefore important for the various legislative bodies to consider doing away with the death sentences and replace it with amore elaborate and a system that can be reversed. This is because even then DNA test and the biological processes