Death Penalty: DNA evidence gains support, injustice system 
remains fundamentally flawed

by MC17 with research help from an Illinois prisoner

Recent events in the criminal injustice system have focused 
attention on the death penalty and its failure in the united 
states. In May the date was set for the first federal execution 
since 1963. The order came in late May to kill a federal prisoner 
held in Indiana on August 5.(1) But while the death orders were 
signed for one man, execution was delayed for another and 
legislation was introduced that could make it a little easier for 
other inmates to prove their innocence. On June 4 Governor George 
W. Bush approved a stay of execution for a prisoner in Texas 
pending review of DNA evidence. On June 7 a group of 
congresspeople introduced legislation to give people convicted of 
committing serious violent crimes the chance to present DNA 
evidence even if it was not available at the time of their initial 
conviction.

This was the first reprieve given by Governor Bush since he took 
office in 1995. He has presided over the execution of 131 inmates. 
The 30-day stay of execution was given to Ricky McGinn, convicted 
of the rape and murder of his 12-year-old stepdaughter. McGinn has 
maintained his innocence and DNA evidence exists that could prove 
his case.

Criminal injustice system fails

McGinn's case demonstrates the failures of the criminal injustice 
system and gives a good example of why the death penalty is 
inherently unjust in the united snakes. McGinn's lawyer was 
reprimanded twice by the state bar for other cases and he didn't 
even begin to look at DNA tests that could save his client until 
recent months. Texas provides only $2,500 for investigators and 
expert witnesses in death-penalty appeals. In fact it was an 
unpaid investigator who drew attention to this case.(3)

McGinn would have been the 219th person executed in Texas since 
1982, the highest number in any state in the united states. Bush 
insists that no innocent person has been killed, but in light of 
his presidential campaign Bush has been polishing his image 
proclaiming that when DNA evidence is available it should be used 
to determine the guilt or innocence of a person on death row.

This sentiment in an election year is good for moderating Bush's 
image and could be turned to the advantage of activists on the 
heels of other recent reprieves from the death penalty. In January 
Illinois Governor George Ryan declared a death penalty moratorium 
after 13 men were released after being found innocent.

Since the Supreme Court allowed reinstatement of the death penalty 
in 1976, 87 death-row inmates have been found innocent. With a 
criminal injustice system bent on killing and imprisoning more and 
more people at skyrocketing rates every year, it is only the 
exceptional case that gets careful scrutiny. This record should 
leave even death penalty proponents asking how many innocent 
people have been put to death because they lacked the money to get 
adequate legal defense. MIM does not stop there, we do not find 
the alternative of life in prison without the chance of parole and 
with little chance of appeals a good alternative to the death 
penalty. Instead we fight for the end to the entire criminal 
injustice system under imperialism.

In May DNA evidence led to Governor Bush to pardon a man who had 
served 17 years in prison for a sexual assault he did not commit. 
Since 1982 over 70 prisoners have been exonerated by DNA evidence 
including eight on death row.(3) Most of those exonerated were 
convicted of rape because that is where DNA evidence is most often 
available. DNA evidence is much less available for other crimes, 
like murder. Without DNA evidence available for all crimes, it is 
clear that DNA screening will not begin to solve the problems of a 
completely flawed system

The attention being given to these death penalty cases only 
follows the sensational cases in the media. The legislation to 
allow DNA evidence was actually introduced to congress several 
months ago by Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy, but the bill was 
ignored and gained no Republican support. He reintroduced it in 
early June with three Republican co-sponsors and much media 
attention.(5) 

Reforms can't fix the criminal injustice system

The Amerikan prison system is used as a tool of social control. It 
is principally needed to control the oppressed nations within u.s. 
borders. This is the population within the u.s. that has the 
greatest material interest in anti-imperialism and poses the 
greatest threat to the system. 

The entire system has been stacked against the oppressed 
nationalities. 98% of prosecutors are white and they are much more 
likely to ask for the death penalty for Black-on-white crimes than 
when Blacks are the victims. Blacks convicted of major violent 
offenses are more likely to end up on death row than white 
convicts.(3)

A recent report by Human Rights Watch presents more facts on the 
unjust targeting of Blacks for drug offenses relative to whites. 
Far more whites use illegal drugs than Blacks but Blacks are 
imprisoned at a much higher rate. Black men made up 62% of drug 
offenders sent to state prison in 1996 while they are just 12% of 
the population. This represents an imprisonment rate of 13 times 
that for white men for drug charges. Data from the US Department 
of Health and Human Services suggests that in the early 1990s five 
times as many whites used cocaine as Blacks.(4)

These facts make it clear that allowing use of DNA evidence will 
not fix the criminal injustice system. It may help a few people, 
with access to enough resources, beat false charges and this makes 
it a reform that MIM supports. But we do not pretend that this 
reform would make the death penalty acceptable in the u.s. 
criminal injustice system. Only the revolutionary overthrow of the 
imperialist system will allow the people to set up a system of 
real justice. 

Notes: 

1. Bureau of Prisons press release, May 26, 2000

2. Reuters, Thursday, June 01, 2000

3. Newsweek, June 12, 2000

4. Washington Post, June 8, 2000

5. Reuters June 07, 2000