Death row exonerations reach new high_90803
Posted: 9/5/03
Death row exonerations reach new high
WASHINGTON (RNS)–Nine death row inmates have been exonerated this year, the highest number in 15 years, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
Three men who spent a combined 67 years on death row were freed in late July, bringing to 111 the number of inmates who have been released from death row since 1973.
All charges were dropped against Timothy Howard and Gary Lamar James, childhood friends who were convicted in 1977 in Ohio on robbery and murder charges, after new evidence was presented in Howard's case and James passed a polygraph test. Both men were on death row before Ohio's capital punishment law was overturned in 1978.
10/14/2003 - By John Rutledge