News and Developments 2006: Innocence

In his final article for 2006, columnist Richard Cohen chose to highlight the "madness of the death penalty" and to draw attention to the execution of those with mental illness. Cohen used the case of Gregory Thompson, a severely mentally ill Tennessee death row inmate, to illustrate some of the broader problems with the death penalty.

Thompson is delusional, paranoid, schizophrenic, and depressed. He takes 12 pills every day and receives twice-monthly anti-psychotic injections. Cohen notes that although there is no doubt about his guilt, there is grave doubt "about the constitutionality, not to mention the decency, of executing an insane man. . . . The idea, according to a recent account of his case in the Wall Street Journal, is to make him sane enough to be put to death." Cohen voices concern about a broad range of uncertainties with the death penalty, including the danger of convicting innocent people. He notes that Americans are growing more skeptical of capital punishment and that they may be "beginning to understand that we just don't need the death penalty, that it makes us no safer and demeans us as a people."

The Fall 2006 edition of the Golden Gate University Law Review contains papers from the recent Symposium entitled "The Faces of Wrongful Conviction" that was held at UCLA in April 2006.  The journal includes articles by Simon Cole on fingerprint evidence, by Alexandra Natapoff on the use of snitches, by Craig Haney on expanding beyond innocence when examining injustices in capital cases, and by Thomas Sullivan on the recording of custodial interviews.

Judge Carolyn Dineen King of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit was the main speaker at the "Red Mass" on October 4 at the Catholic cathedral in Corpus Christi, Texas.  The Red Mass is an annual liturgy held for members of the legal profession near the beginning of the judicial term.  Its traditions extend back to 13th century Europe.  Judge King spoke about the death penalty, both from her perspective as a judge and as a Catholic.  In both areas, she raised strong concerns about the application of the death penalty in the U.S.

Corey Maye was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of a police officer in Prentiss, Mississippi, on the day after Christmas in 2001.  The police officer was part of a drug raid on a neighbor's apartment.  Maye claims that the police broke into his duplex unannounced and that he fired his gun in defense of himself and his 18-month-old daughter.  Mississippi Circuit Court Judge Michael Eubanks recently ruled that Maye was entitled to a new sentencing hearing because his defense counsel provided inadequate representation.  The judge said that he would rule later on Maye's motion for a new trial or a verdict of not guilty.  The case also has racial overtones because Maye is black and the police officer who was killed, Ron Jones, was white and the son of the town's police chief.