Tuesday, August 10, 2004  Ryan Matthews: No. 155  Ryan Matthews
became the 115th person to be released from death row due to
actual innocence this week. He is from Louisiana. Interestingly,
while researching his case for a press release, I found that he
is the THIRD African American juvenile to be wrongly convicted
and sentenced to death. Think about that. Of the 115 people we
now know to be innocent, three of them were put on trial when
they were 16 or 17 years old by Louisiana prosecutors. And all
three were black. You think they've got a problem down there?
Serious Abolitionist said...  Yes, they have a problem down
there, as does every state that has the death penalty. Not only
is the death penalty obviously racist, the fact that so many
people are exonerated shows that the whole system is broken.
Chances are that if these young men had been white, they would
not have gotten the death penalty; however, they probably would
have been railroaded into convictions, particularly in
Louisiana, Texas, or Florid