The Anatomy of a Wrongful Execution

In 1989, Texas executed Carlos DeLuna, a poor Hispanic man with childlike intelligence, for the murder a convenience store clerk. His execution passed unnoticed for years until a team of Columbia Law School faculty and students chose to investigate his case. They found that DeLuna almost certainly was innocent—and that another man named Carlos, who was well known to the police and prosecutors, committed the murder. Columbia law school professorJames Liebman, and Andrew Markquart and Shawn Crowley, talk about the case and how faulty eyewitness testimony, poor legal representation, and prosecutorial misfeasance continue to put innocent people at risk of execution. They write about this case in The Wrong Carlos: Anatomy of a Wrongful Execution.

You can see crime-scene photos, court records, media records, and an interactive map at http://thewrongcarlos.net/.

 

GUESTS:

Shawn CrowleyJames Liebman and Andrew Markquart

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