O'Connor Questions Death Penalty -NYT

July 4, 2001
O'Connor Questions Death Penalty
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
MINNEAPOLIS, July 3 — Justice Sandra Day O'Connor has questioned the fairness of the death penalty and raised the possibility that innocent people had been executed.
"If statistics are any indication, the system may well be allowing some innocent defendants to be executed," Justice O'Connor told the Minnesota Women Lawyers association on Monday.
Six death-row inmates were exonerated and released last year, and 90 have been freed since 1973, said Justice O'Connor, who has been a swing vote on several death penalty cases.
Justice O'Connor said the growing availability of DNA testing might alleviate some concerns. But she said most states with capital punishment had not passed laws setting up testing after convictions.
She also said defendants with more money got better legal defense. In Texas last year, she said, people represented by court-appointed lawyers were 28 percent more likely to be convicted than those who hired their own lawyers. If convicted, they were 44 percent more likely to be sentenced to death.
"Perhaps it's time to look at minimum standards for appointed counsel in death cases and adequate compensation for appointed counsel when they are used," she said.
Noting that Minnesota did not have the death penalty, Justice O'Connor said, "You must breathe a big sigh of relief every day."
Justice O'Connor made no mention of cases decided in the Supreme Court's just-concluded term. Outside the hotel where she spoke, a handful of protesters criticized Justice O'Connor for her vote in the Bush v. Gore election case last fall, which was decided 5 to 4, with Justice O'Connor in the majority.
Copyright © 2001 The New York Times Company