- “Every wrongful conviction reveals not just individual failure, but the patterns of systemic injustice baked into the death penalty itself.” – Megan Byrne, senior staff attorney at the ACLU’s Capital Punishment Project
NEW YORK — The American Civil Liberties Union released a new report Wednesday outlining how wrongful convictions — especially of Black men — remain a predictable outcome of the nation’s death penalty system, not isolated errors.
The report, titled Fatal Flaws: Innocence, Race and Wrongful Convictions, argues that racism, human error and deeply rooted systemic failures continue to produce wrongful death sentences. In some cases, those failures have resulted in executions despite compelling innocence evidence.
The release comes at a moment when executions in the United States are climbing. According to the ACLU, more people have been executed this year than in any year over the past decade. Some of those executed had substantial innocence claims that were never fully resolved.
“Every wrongful conviction reveals not just individual failure, but the patterns of systemic injustice baked into the death penalty itself,” said Megan Byrne, senior staff attorney at the ACLU’s Capital Punishment Project. Byrne said the racial foundations of the death penalty continue to shape who is prosecuted, convicted and sentenced to death.
“The death penalty was built on a foundation of racism, and those roots still shape how it works today,” Byrne said. “When you combine that history with human bias and political pressure to reach convictions in high profile cases, it becomes clear why wrongful death sentences are not rare accidents, they’re the predictable result of a fundamentally flawed system that fails the accused and the community at large. The only way to prevent wrongful convictions is to end the death penalty once and for all.”
Since the modern era of capital punishment began in 1973, at least 200 people have been exonerated after being sentenced to death. The ACLU report states at least 21 others who were likely innocent have already been executed.
The report illustrates the human toll of those errors. One case highlighted is that of Glynn Simmons, who spent 48 years wrongfully imprisoned — the longest known wrongful incarceration in U.S. history. Simmons was initially sentenced to death before his sentence was reduced. The report notes his case reflects the length of time it can take for wrongful convictions to be corrected, if they are corrected at all.
The ACLU identifies recurring patterns behind wrongful death penalty convictions. According to the report, official misconduct by police or prosecutors is the most common factor. Examples include coercing witnesses, concealing exculpatory evidence, falsifying reports and allowing or encouraging perjury. The report states those practices are especially prevalent in wrongful convictions involving Black defendants.
False testimony or perjury occurred in nearly 70 percent of wrongful capital cases. The report states that pattern is even more pronounced among Black and Latine exonerees.
Eyewitness misidentification contributed to about one in five wrongful death sentences. The report notes misidentification is significantly more common in cases involving witnesses and suspects of different races.
Unreliable or discredited forensic evidence also played a major role in wrongful convictions. The report states roughly one in three exonerations involved flawed forensic science. Among the practices still used in capital cases are bite-mark comparisons and microscopic hair analysis, both of which have been widely rejected within modern forensic science.
Jury selection also remains a key factor. The report cites the continued use of “death qualification,” which allows prosecutors to remove jurors who oppose the death penalty. The ACLU argues this process produces juries that are disproportionately white, more likely to convict and more likely to impose the death penalty. The report states racial bias in jury strikes further compounds the problem, leaving many Black jurors excluded.
The ACLU argues wrongful conviction risks remain high at every stage of the death penalty process — from policing and prosecution to jury selection, trial proceedings and appeals.
The report also examines public perception. While public support for the death penalty has declined, the ACLU states the decline has not resulted in fewer death sentences or executions. Instead, the report says political pressure, media influence and longstanding myths about closure and deterrence continue to drive death penalty use.
The ACLU calls on state governments and policymakers to take specific actions. The report recommends repealing the death penalty, expanding post-conviction review, ensuring racially fair juries, strengthening innocence commissions, improving access to reparations for exonerees and enforcing accountability when police or prosecutors engage in misconduct.
The organization argues the evidence demonstrates incremental reform cannot eliminate the risk of executing innocent people.
The report also stresses the financial cost of wrongful death penalty prosecutions. It notes that capital cases require extensive appeals, forensic testing, expert witnesses and public defense costs. According to the ACLU, wrongful death penalty convictions represent a financial burden for taxpayers as well as a moral crisis.
The ACLU also highlights the lasting harm to exonerees. Many, the report notes, leave prison with no financial support, no access to therapy and no meaningful government acknowledgment of the harm inflicted.
The report is the second in a multi-volume project examining the death penalty. The first, Fatal Flaws: Revealing the Racial and Religious Gerrymandering of the Capital Jury, analyzed jury inequality in capital cases.
The ACLU argues the findings make it clear that wrongful death sentences are not anomalies, nor the result of outdated practices or fringe jurisdictions. Instead, the report characterizes wrongful convictions as an outcome produced by the structure, history and operation of the death penalty system itself.
The full report is available at the ACLU website: https://www.aclu.org/publications/fatal-flaws-innocence-race-and-wrongful-convictions
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David:
Please.
The fraudulent numbers of the claimed “exonerated”/”innocent” released from death row has been know, since at least 1998, to the tune of a 71-83% fraud rate, depending upon study, taking that 200 down to about 43, proven factually innocent, using the average 77%,
That’s as far as you have to go, to show this study is a farce.
If in this debate, it is impossible not to know this.