John Thompson asks an excellent question in his heartfelt article in The New York Times on April 10, 2011: Why no penalty for those who put an innocent man on death row?
After spending 18 years in prison for robbery and murder, 14 of them on death row, he’s been free since 2003. In March 2011 the Supreme Court overturned a case Thompson had won against the district attorney for failure to turn over exculpatory evidence.
In technical language, the Supreme Court case considered whether a prosecutor’s office can be held liable for a single Brady violation by one of its members on the theory that the office provided inadequate training. The Court voted no, 5-4.
Although this case was argued on a technical issue, the real issue is capital punishment. The district attorney was able to argue for the death penalty because of the prior, faulty robbery conviction. If the death penalty was not an option, this mischief could not have happened.
As Americans we have not reconciled our bloodlust for punishing wrongdoers with the morality of respecting life–all life, even the life of convicted murderers. Life in prison allows for moral rehabilitation, penitence if you will. Death does not.
