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Short Film Illustrates Unfair Trial

Christopher Hill,
Capital Punishment Project
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June 16, 2008

Injustice runs rampant in North Carolina’s death penalty system.Of the 129 people exonerated from death row, eight are from North Carolina. The most recent exonerees were sent to death row because of prosecutorial misconduct, use of coerced testimony from snitches and junk science. The state has lied to a judge about how executions would be carried out and lied to a corporation that they would not use a machine for executions when, in fact, it is exactly why the state purchased the machine.

If there isn’t already enough proof that North Carolina’s capital punishment system is corrupt, here is more evidence. This short filmwww.mikelbarton.com/fti.htm discusses the unfair capital retrial of Jerry Conner. A crime reporter from the small community in which Conner was convicted covered the trial and received information from the Sheriff that a jury would not have known. When called to serve on Conner’s sentencing jury, the reporter lied and said she was unfamiliar with the case. Conner was sentenced to death and even though the reporter has admitted she lied, Conner still remains on death row without a new trial.

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