Political Quotes

“I want to discuss the case of Earl Washington. Mr. Washington was released from custody Monday after more than 17 years in prison. In fact, of the 17 years in prison, 10 years of that were on death row. Virginia Governor James Gilmore pardoned Earl Washington on October 2, 2000, after some new DNA tests confirmed what earlier DNA tests had already shown--he was the wrong guy. They had the wrong person in prison on death row. I mention this case as probably the most recent that we have seen in the press, but we have seen a shocking number of cases in the past 2 years in which inmates have been exonerated after long stays in prison, including more than 90 cases involving people who had been sentenced to death. Let me repeat that: more than 90 cases where people had been sentenced to death and they then found they had the wrong person. Since Earl Washington was pardoned 4 months ago, six more condemned prisoners in four different States have had their convictions vacated through exonerating evidence: William Nieves, sentenced to death in Pennsylvania in 1994; Michael Graham and Albert Burrell, sentenced to death in Louisiana in 1987; Peter Limone and Joseph Salvati, sentenced to death in Massachusetts in 1968; and Frank Lee Smith, sentenced to death in Florida in 1986.”