Dangling on Death Row
One in ten death row inmates are innocent. In Arizona and Texas, the execution capital of America, we hear from two inmates who have spent years awaiting the lethal injection for crimes they deny committing.
"There are plenty of people here who think if you're guilty of murder you should be taken out back and hung from the nearest tree", says Sara Kinney from the Houston Prosecutor's Office. Yet those sentenced to death cost the taxpayer 2 million dollars each, a far higher sum than life imprisonment. "You can hear people crying in the night here. It's difficult to watch people die over and over", says inmate Hank Skinner. For 19 years he has been held in isolation. Three years ago he was just 10 minutes away from execution when the Supreme Court said there was insufficient DNA evidence and delayed his sentence. "We have a system where you're supposed to be presumed innocent. When somebody gets charged here, they're presumed guilty", says lawyer Mike Kimerer.
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