Another Execution of An Innocent Man in Texas

Andrew Cohen points us to this exhaustive study by the Columbia Human Rights Law Review about the execution of Carlos DeLuna. I will have more when I’ve had the chance to read the book next week, but the bottom line is that 1)the evidence against DeLuna is exceptionally weak, for the familiar reasons — inept defense counsel, particularly useless eyewitness ID, no forensic evidence tied to DeLuna, police and prosecutors who decided to ignore these things once they had focused on a suspect. And the case against Carlos Hernandez, who repeatedly admitted to having actually committed the murder, is much stronger.

But, of course, as Antonin Scalia would say, since it’s never been established in a court of law because there would be no way of doing so, we can just keep saying that America has never executed an innocent man!