Eyewitness always report that there is a smell of burned flesh"(57). On occasion, electrocution needed more than one application of electric current to kill the prisoner. "When the authorities in the state of Louisiana electrocuted Willie Francis, a seventeen year-old black youth, in 1946, he survived the first attempt. When John Lewis Evans was executed by electrocution in Alabama in April 1983 it required three separate charges of 1,900 volts over fourteen minutes before he was officially pronounced dead" (58). .
Another strong and compelling issues is the possibility of innocent death. The death penalty is irreversible and in the event of an error the executed convict cannot be given a second chance. The judicial system has not so far proven its ability to ensure unwarranted conviction of the innocent. The online magazine Action Alert, reported the following, "In recent years, numerous studies have found that one in seven persons on death row are later proven innocent. And in one disturbing recent case, a prisoner was forty-eight hours from execution when he was proven innocent. In the past twenty five year, ninety-five innocent people have been released from death row" (ACLU). Some of those released from death row were as a result of some of the newly developed technology in the field of Biology. DNA testing on biological samples such as skin,.
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saliva, semen, blood or hair has proven their innocence with great accuracy. There are also those who were released after the true perpetrator of the crime came forward and made a confession or the discovery of what is sometimes described as improper police procedures where "Under considerable public pressure to solve a crime" a proper police investigation was not done. Radelet, Bedau, and Putman Punishment And The Death Penalty (96).