Innocence Project's Efforts Fail For Death-Row Inmate

Georgia death-row inmate Troy Davis was executed on September 21 despite extensive efforts to save him after witnesses recanted their testimony about his responsibility for the shooting of a police officer. Some of those fighting to have his death sentence commuted were part of the Innocence Project, which has had a hand in the exoneration of death-row inmates through DNA testing, although there was no DNA evidence at issue in this case.

The Innocence Project was co-founded by Barry Scheck, J.D., a defense lawyer who became known through the 1995 murder trial of former professional football player O.J. Simpson. The project also paved the way for similar programs to be founded throughout the United States. Today there are 68 of them. And thanks to the efforts of these programs, 271 prisoners have been exonerated through DNA testing, 17 of whom were scheduled to be executed, and the actual perpetrators were identified in 120 of these cases.

More information about the Innocence Project can be found in Psychiatric News at http://pn.psychiatryonline.org/content/46/14/13.1.full.

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