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Innocence Project director urges Wisconsin not to bring back capital punishment
By Kevin Lessmiller
Professor Barry Scheck of Cardozo Law School, known for his role as a defense attorney in the O.J. Simpson case and as the attorney and co-director of the Innocence Project, spoke Thursday about the death penalty.
The Innocence Project, which was started in 1992, works to reform the criminal justice system through the exoneration of innocent people convicted of crimes they didn’t commit.
His visit to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee came at a critical time for the debate on capital punishment in the state. Wisconsin abolished the death penalty in 1858, but a referendum will be on the ballot this November asking voters if they wish to see it return.
Although the Innocence Project as an organization takes no official position on the politics of the subject, Scheck who spoke as part of the Distinguished Lecture Series, is opposed to the idea of bringing back capital punishment.
Scheck stressed the importance of not relying solely on DNA testing for the conviction of a criminal, specifically in the case of potential capital punishment.
Scheck gave the example that a serial killer charged in a case without DNA evidence would probably go to jail for life without parole, while someone who committed murder in a situation like a bar fight would, with DNA evidence, be sentenced to death in a state that has capital punishment.
“DNA is not foolproof,” Scheck said. “It’s ridiculous to think so.”
Scheck included in his lecture an account of how two innocent men were imprisoned for crimes they did not commit. Frank Lee Smith was a schizophrenic man who falsely confessed to murder and was sentenced to life without parole.
Another man, Jerry Frank Townsend, confessed to a series of rapes and murders in the Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., area after law enforcement interrogated him. Townsend has the mental capacity of an 8-year-old.
A man by the name of Eddie Lee Mosley committed the crimes that both Townsend and Smith were charged for. Townsend was exonerated with the help of the Innocence Project in 2000. Unfortunately, Smith died in jail before the DNA evidence could exonerate him.
Scheck outlined the traditional issues surrounding the debate around the death penalty, such as the morality, fairness and cost of capital punishment in his lecture.
He described spending government funding on capital punishment as “foolish public policy.”
“How can you think twice of bringing (capital punishment) back?”
The advisory referendum is up for vote on Nov. 7.
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