ALA. CASE PINPOINTS DEATH-PENALTY FLAW

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 14, 1993                   TAG: 9304140327
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
ALA. CASE PINPOINTS DEATH-PENALTY FLAW
ON MARCH 2, a 52-year-old man in Alabama was given a new lease on life. He was told in September 1988 that he was going to die - not by a doctor, not by a psychic, but by a judge in that state. Walter McMillan, a black male, was convicted by a jury of his peers of the murder of an 18-year-old white woman. The judge declared that McMillan had no right to live and condemned him to death.
Except something was wrong with the picture. After four appeals fell on deaf ears, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals unanimously concluded that key evidence withheld by the state could have proved McMillan's innocence or damaged key witnesses' testimony against him.
All this may sound a bit familiar. More than a year ago, Herbert Bassett's death sentence was commuted to life in prison the morning of his execution, based on Gov. Wilder's belief that there was reasonable doubt that Bassett had committed the murder. As in the Alabama case, the conviction was based on the testimony of three convicted felons who testified that Bassett was with them and committed the murder while his family claimed that he was home with them. It took years of probing to uncover the evidence needed to prevent this man from being executed.
According to a Stanford Law Review study, 23 men have been found innocent of the crime for which they were executed. This is one of the reasons why the death penalty is so frightening. It is irreversible. "Oops, we made a mistake" doesn't quite do it when this act is being invoked by the state.
What happened in Alabama last month should not be taken as just another newsworthy story. Our state and our country are killing people who killed or may have killed, or who may be innocent of killing. No person or group of people in any civilized society has the right to determine whether a person should die. Killing people to prove that killing people is wrong just makes no sense. HENRY HELLER Virginians Against State Killing FABER

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB