Montana Abolition Coalition

The prison warden selects the executioner, whose identity is kept confidential. The duties are performed in an area separate from where a panel of 12 people witness the execution.

Most Montanans believe in their justice system.

They believe in the system and take for granted that the system works 100% of the time. But take the time to consider that the system is based on humans - fraught with human error and human fallibility. Using a peer jury system, the U.S. courts work most of the time; but unfortunately they don't work all of the time.
Sometimes, innocent people are charged.
Sometimes, innocent people are convicted.
Sometimes, innocent people are put to death -- and that can never be corrected; restitution can never be made for the state's homicide of an innocent person.

200 individuals have been cleared of crimes (capital and non capital crimes) in the US through DNA technology; but in many, many cases, DNA is still simply unavailable. (In fact, capital crimes do not require DNA evidence to convict).

Wrongful convictions have already occurred in Montana in non capital cases. Montana experienced several cases where faulty DNA evidence was used for convictions - the individuals convicted in these cases were later exonerated through updated DNA technology.

Nationally, between 1973 and the present, 124 individuals in the United States have been convicted, sentenced to death, and later exonerated (some escaping the death penalty by mere hours). And those are only exonerations which have been provable. Many innocent individuals have gone to their deaths or still await execution on death row because there simply is no DNA evidence in their case.

(To be included on this list, individuals must have been convicted, sentenced to death and subsequently either -
A) their conviction was overturned AND
1) they were acquitted at re-trial or
2) they were given an absolute pardon by the governor based on new evidence of innocence. [This (DPIC) list was first assembled in 1993 at the request of the House Subcommittee on Civil & Constitutional Rights.] REF (The Nation, 1/8-15/01)

The average individual exonerated of their crime takes several years to prove their case. This may take so long that they are unable to prove their innocence before being executed. The Average Number of Years (of incarceration) before exoneration: 9 Years
REF

 

Click HERE to read "Shouting from the Rooftops: A National Coalition Against the Death Penalty Report" on 4 innocent individuals convicted and executed in the United States published in 2007.

Americans sentenced to death and later proven to be innocent
(between 1971 - 2007):

* David Keaton * Samuel A. Poole * Wilbert Lee * Freddie Pitts * James Creamer * Christopher Spicer * Thomas Gladish * Richard Greer * Ronald Keine * Clarence Smith* Delbert Tibbs * Earl * Jonathan Treadway * Gary Beeman * Jerry Banks * Larry Hicks * Charles Ray Giddens * Michael Linder * Johnny Ross * Ernest (Shuhaa) Graham * Annibal Jaramillo * Lawyer Johnson * Larry Fisher * Anthony Brown * Neil Ferber * Clifford * Henry Bowen * Joseph Green Brown * Perry Cobb * Darby (Williams) Tillis * Vernon McManus * Anthony Ray Peek * Juan Ramos * Robert Wallace * Richard Neal Jones * Willie Brown * Larry Troy * Randall Dale Adams * Robert Cox * Timothy Hennis * James Richardson * Clarence Brandley * John C. Skelton * Dale Johnston * Jimmy Lee Mathers * Gary Nelson * Bradley P. Scott * Charles Smith * Jay C. Smith * Kirk Bloodsworth * Federico M. Macias * Walter McMillian * Gregory R. Wilhoit * James Robison * Muneer Deeb * Andrew Golden * Adolph Munson * Robert Charles Cruz * Rolando Cruz * Alejandro Hernandez * Sabrina Butler * Joseph Burrows * Verneal Jimerson * Dennis Williams * Roberto Miranda* Gary Gauger * Troy Lee Jones * Carl Lawson * David Wayne Grannis * Ricardo Aldape Guerra * Benjamin Harris * Robert Hayes * Christopher McCrimmon * Randall Padgett * James Bo Cochran * Robert Lee Miller, Jr. * Curtis Kyles * Shareef Cousin * Anthony Porter * Steven Smith * Ronald Williamson * Ronald Jones * Clarence Dexter, Jr. * Warren Douglas Manning * Alfred Rivera * Steve Manning * Eric Clemmons * Joseph Nahume * Earl Washington * William Nieves * Frank Lee Smith * Albert Burrell * Oscar Lee Morris * Peter Limone * Gary Drinkard * Joaquin Jose Martinez * Jeremy Sheets * Charles Fain * Juan Roberto Melendez * Thomas Kimbell, Jr. * Larry Osborne * Aaron Patterson * Madison Hobley * Leroy Orange * Stanley Howard * Rudolph Holton * Lemuel Prion * Wesley Quick * John Thompson * Timothy Howard * Gary Lamar James * Joseph Amrine * Nicholas Yarris * Alan Gell * Gordon Steidl * Laurence Adams * Dan L. Bright * Ryan Matthews * Ernest Ray Willis * Derrick Jamison * Harold Wilson * John Ballard * Curtis McCarty *

Average number of years of incarceration before exoneration: 9