Word: dna
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...over his choices for 10 days, but when he finally decided to take this unprecedented step, he moved quickly. On the way to a New Mexico event to talk about military policy last Wednesday, communications chief Karen Hughes told the Texas Governor that a state court had barred new DNA tests for McGinn--removing one of the last roadblocks to his execution the next day. As they rolled along under the hot Southwest sun, Bush called his legal counsel, Margaret Wilson, to review the matter. He peppered her with questions: Was DNA relevant? Could it prove whether McGinn had raped...
...created. There was a time when only a few liberals and a small group of clergymen fretted over the fairness of the death-penalty system. But ever since famed defense lawyer Barry Scheck and his Innocence Project gained national exposure with their successes in freeing death-row inmates with DNA evidence, a number of prominent conservatives have come forward with their doubts about the reliability of the judicial process. These doubts have also turned up in the polls. "I don't know if McGinn is innocent or not," said Scheck, who has signed on as a volunteer in the McGinn...
...freed when new evidence cast doubt on their guilt. Then came Pat Robertson, the religious broadcaster, who called for a national moratorium. Next Wednesday, Democrat Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Republican Gordon Smith of Oregon will introduce a major bill in the Senate that would compel states to use DNA testing in all relevant cases. Also next week a highly touted study led by a Columbia law professor will report an "appalling rate" of error in the capital justice system and make a claim to documenting it state by state...
...murder conviction alone is not a capital crime; the killing must be accompanied by an aggravating crime, like rape, in order for the perpetrator to end up on death row. McGinn's lawyers are challenging the prosecutorial evidence linking their client to Flanary's rape, claiming the old-style DNA tests performed on evidence collected from her body were inconclusive. The defense attorneys are demanding a test using improved methods - which they feel would exonerate McGinn of the ruinous second conviction...
Bush, who stands among the nation's most vocal supporters of the death penalty, faced a very public decision as he weighed McGinn's fate. And by granting McGinn a stay of execution and recommending the DNA tests, Bush executed an unalloyed about-face, knowing the case could very well come back to haunt him in November. The stay was the only alternative to execution: Under Texas law, the governor cannot change McGinn's sentence without the approval of state parole board, which has voted overwhelmingly to proceed with the execution...