A recent article in the New York Times highlighted the story of Kirk Bloodsworth, who was the first death row inmate in the country to be exonerated by DNA testing. Bloodsworth, a former Marine, was sentenced to death in 1984 for the rape and murder of a 9-year-old girl outside of Baltimore, Maryland. After DNA evidence led to his exoneration and release in 1993, Bloodsworth began working against capital punishment and for justice reform. “If it could happen to me, it could happen to anybody,” he told the reporter. He is now the advocacy director for Witness to Innocence, an organization of exonerated death row inmates who support each other and work to repeal capital punishment. Bloodsworth has returned to Maryland as it considers a bill to end the death penalty. Advocates for repeal cite the declining use of the death penalty as evidence that capital punishment is losing support across the country (see NYT charts using DPIC data). Death sentences have dropped to the lowest levels since capital punishment was reinstated in 1976. Five states since 2007 have done away with the death penalty.

(S. Shane, “A Death Penalty Fight Comes Home,” New York Times, February 6, 2013). See Innocence and Recent Legislation.