Media Advisory

FROM CITIZENS UNITED FOR ALTERNATIVES TO THE DEATH PENALTY (CUADP)

For comment, please contact DPIC directly, or for a Florida contact or alternative national contact, call Abe Bonowitz at 800-973-6548.
Brenda Bowser of the Death Penalty Information Center may be reached at 202-293-6970

DEATH PENALTY INFORMATION CENTER ISSUES ITS YEAR-END REPORT

The Death Penalty Information Center has just issued its annual "Year End Report." Check it out at www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/yrendrpt02.pdf. The DPIC press release is available at www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/PR-DPICyrend2002.pdf.

REGARDING THE NUMBER OF DEATH ROW EXONERATIONS IN FLORIDA AND NATIONALLY

24 vs. 22 Death Row Exonerations: WHY FADP AND DPIC DIFFER

Since Juan Melendez was released from death row on January 3, 2002, Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (FADP) has spent considerable time explaining to reporters why FADP counts 24 exonerated prisoners, and the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) in Washington, DC counts only 22. The reason is because FADP and DPIC use different standards to decide which persons should be included in the list. DPIC does not include Sunny Jacobs and Joe Spaziano, because they were not ***technically*** exonerated.

DPIC posts the following statement prior to listing a number of cases of "probable innocence" on their web page at www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/innocothers.html#Released

"Other defendants, though not exonerated completely, were released from death row with substantial evidence of their innocence. Generally, the defendant's conviction was overturned and then he or she reluctantly entered a guilty plea to a lesser charge because of the threat of possibly receiving another death sentence. In most of these cases, no responsible person would find them guilty. Nevertheless, unlike those enumerated above, they are technically guilty of some degree of murder. This list is not necessarily inclusive of all such cases." END OF QUOTE

EMPHASIS ADDED: "In most of these cases, no responsible person would find them guilty."

Consider then the OTHER EXPERTS who DO count Sunny Jacobs and Joe Spaziano. The St. Petersburg Times included both Jacobs and Spaziano in their 1999 review of Florida's exonerated death row inmates, which you can now read on the FADP site at www.fadp.org/article1.html.

and

Professor Michael L. Radelet, preeminent expert on Florida's death row, also counts Jacobs and Spaziano. In his most recent version of his document "Recent Developments in the Death Penalty in Florida," which you can AND SHOULD read at www.cuadp.org/florida/fldpinfo.html, he writes in his section on innocence:

"Note that in addition to the 21 cases included by the Death Penalty Information Center, I also include the Florida cases of Sunny Jacobs and Joe Spaziano. And, if Governor Bush is sincerely interested in testing his belief that everyone executed in Florida was unquestionably guilty, I urge him to look into the case of Jesse Tafero, whose evidence of innocence is even stronger than that of Medina and Demps." END QUOTE

Jesse Tafero was Sunny Jacobs' co-defendent.

Enough said. Florida has ***24*** releases of prisoners wrongfully convicted.

If you consider the prisoners on DPIC's list of "probable innocence," the actual number of prisoners released from death row due to innocence is not 102, but 115.

If you add to that DPIC's list of "possible innocence - sentence commuted," the number grows to 120

DPIC also lists five prisoners executed despite doubts of their guilt.

SENT BY:
 
Abraham J. Bonowitz
Director, CUADP

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