NEW YORK, NY – A trio of videos released by The New York Times provide three perspectives on the urgent need for the abolition of the death penalty, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
The videos feature one from Brian Wharton, a former police detective who believes he helped put an innocent man on death row; one from Brett Malone, who is currently fighting to save the life of his mother’s murderer; and one from Charles Don Flores, who is still facing the death penalty in Texas.
A report from the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) describes the three videos as in keeping with The New York Times’ longstanding opposition to the death penalty.
In his video, Malone describes how he initially harbored hatred for Jeremiah Manning, his mother’s killer, who slit her throat in the forest behind her home and was subsequently convicted of murder and sentenced to death.
However, Malone now argues “killing Jeremiah will not bring us any closure,” and wants Manning’s sentence to be commuted to life without parole.
One reason for his change of heart, maintains Malone in the NY Times video, was learning Manning’s mother and family still supported him and visited him frequently in prison.
Malone notes executing Manning “will result in more harm and more pain and more suffering and not just for my family but for his family, which is something that people forget about.”
Malone argues in the video that capital punishment cuts off avenues for healing and reparations.
“We’re good about convicting and punishing people,” Malone explains, “but not so good about repairing the damage that’s been done.”
Meanwhile, former Texas police detective Wharton describes in his video how he played a role in the conviction and death sentence of Robert Roberson, an autistic man who was convicted of his daughter’s murder based on a limited understanding of ‘shaken baby syndrome’ has since been shown to be false, said the NY Times.
“I regret deeply that we followed the easiest path,” said Wharton to the New York Times. Wharton states that he believes Roberson’s autism played a role in his conviction, and that he now believes that Roberson’s daughter died of completely natural causes. Despite this, Roberson is still scheduled to be executed on Oct. 17, said the DPIC.
Norman Kuthgelch, the neuroscientist credited with discovering shaken baby syndrome, became critical later in life of the diagnosis’ use to convict parents of murder, notes an NPR report.
Finally, in his New York Times video, Flores speaks from a Texas prison, where he has been awaiting execution for more than 20 years.
Flores was convicted and sentenced to death even though someone else confessed to the crime, writes the NYT, and even though the principal witness in the 1998 murder of Elizabeth Black initially could not pick Flores out of a lineup and gave a description that did not fit Flores.
In a video from 1998, that witness, a woman named Jill Barganier, is shown undergoing investigative hypnosis, a technique that was once believed to help people recall memories in great detail.
After undergoing hypnosis, reports the NYT, Barganier suddenly was able to identify Flores as the murderer, contradicting the description she had previously given to the police. The Times notes investigative hypnosis is now debunked pseudoscience.
Even though both of their convictions were based on ‘junk science,’ and even though, according to the DPIC, Texas has a 2013 junk science law that “established a procedure for prisoners convicted on the basis of flawed forensic evidence to seek new trials,” both Roberson and Flores are still slated to be executed.
Former Texas judge Elsa Alcada and Texas Defender Services’ Director of Special Projects Estelle Hebron Jones are quoted by the DPIC as saying that the junk science law “has fallen disturbingly short.”
In fact, a report from Texas Defender Services reveals 80 percent of imprisoned people seeking to take advantage of the junk sciences law have lost their appeals.
Manning, Roberson and Flores all remain on death row.
