BY LARRY DOUGLAS

On April 8, Ray Krone, became the 100th person in the United States since 1973 to be released for a crime that put him on death row.

Krone, 45, was convicted for the 1991 stabbing death of 36-year-old Arizona bartender, Kim Ancona, and sentenced to death, although he was later retried and sentenced to life in prison because of a technicality.

In Krone's trial, experts differed over whether teeth marks found on Ancona's body matched Krone's bite, which had a distinctive dental pattern from an accident he had when he was younger. Krone's defence attorney, Alan Simpson, petitioned last year to have evidence tested again using the latest technology.

After the new DNA tests determined that saliva and blood found on Ancona did not come from Krone, but from another man, a convicted sex offender, prosecutors applied to a judge for Krone's release.

“Today our nation reached a shameful milestone of 100 death row exonerations”, said Wayne Smith, the executive director of the Justice Project in a statement issued April 8. “One hundred innocent lives were put at risk, 100 victim families had to relive the horror of the crime, and 100 times our system failed us in its most important task.”

“These exonerated people represent the exception to the rule in the US capital punishment system. Meanwhile, other innocent people awaiting their executions on death row may be erroneously killed”, said William Schulz, executive director of Amnesty International USA.

From Green Left Weekly, April 24, 2002.
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