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CNN Live At Daybreak

Updated Death Penalty Study Says More Sentencing Mistakes Likely

Aired February 11, 2002 - 05:36   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: There has been an update of a study of death penalty cases done two years ago. The original study found serious enough mistakes in death penalty cases to suggest the nation's legal system was overburdened.

CNN's Jonathan Aiken has more on this updated study.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JONATHAN AIKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When Earl Washington walked out of a Virginia prison a year ago, he was a free man for the first time in 18 years, more than half that time waiting on death row for a murder he didn't commit.

Washington's case isn't as unique as you might think. Two years ago, an academic study found lawyers, judges and juries made mistakes serious enough to reverse death sentences in nearly 7 out of every 10 capital cases between 1973 and 1995. An update of that report now finds the growing list of crimes punishable for the death penalty makes it even more likely mistakes will happen.

JAMES LIEBMAN, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LAW SCHOOL: It puts you at very high risk of having high error rates. It also puts you at high risk of sentencing people to death, who later on will turn out to be innocent.

AIKEN (on camera): The report cites the social and political pressures to expand the number of death penalty cases. And it says that the courts, and in particular state courts, are overworked and under funded now to the point they can't control the quality of cases that make their way through the system.

(voice-over): Like Earl Washington's -- the rape and murder of a 19-year-old mother of three. His blood type didn't match the DNA evidence. His original defense lawyers didn't raise that. Washington has an IQ of just 69. The lawyer who later took up his case claims his client was easily led through an interrogation riddled with leading questions and inconsistencies.

ROBERT HALL, WASHINGTON'S DEFENSE ATTORNEY: "Well, Earl, tell me about her. Was she black or white?" "Uh, she was black." "Earl?" "Uh, she was white." "How many times did you stab her?" "Two maybe three times." AIKEN: She was stabbed 38 times.

Now, some death penalty supporters point to cases like Washington's, where the verdict was reversed, as proof the system works.

JOE WHITLEY, FORMER PROSECUTOR: There are so many checks and balances in our system that it would be -- it is not impossible that the death penalty would be imposed on someone who might possibly be innocent, but I think it's highly unlikely.

AIKEN: Washington was spared about a week before his scheduled execution.

Looking for ways to reduce the odds of error in death penalty cases, the study suggests legal proof of guilt beyond any doubt, not just reasonable doubt, barring the death penalty for defendants who are mentally ill or juveniles, and juries should offer life with no parole as an option.

The report recommends the death penalty be reserved only for those crimes everyone can agree are the worst of the worst, and it warns the U.S. legal system is collapsing under the weight of errors in capital cases, cases just like Earl Washington's.

Jonathan Aiken for CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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