Oregon has come perilously close to sentencing people to death for crimes they did not commit.  Five people have been convicted of murder, or aggravated murder, and given sentences ranging from twenty years in prison to life without the possibility of parole.

Tobin Lecture

November 14, 2009

Keynote Address

All Saints Catholic Church, Portland, Oregon

I recently had coffee in Seattle with Sister Helen Prejean, who has been a tireless voice of opposition to the death penalty.

Author of "Dead Man Walking," many might imagine Sister Helen as Susan Sarandon in the movie based on the book. Sister Helen was amazed that Washington, as seldom as it executes, still has a death penalty. As she colorfully put it, "You have a Cadillac that you never take out of the garage � why not get rid of it?"

Innocent but Dead

By Bob Herbert

There is a long and remarkable article in the current New Yorker about a man who was executed in Texas in 2004 for deliberately setting a fire that killed his three small children. Rigorous scientific analysis has since shown that there was no evidence that the fire in a one-story, wood frame house in Corsicana was the result of arson, as the authorities had alleged.  Read More..