This month, Clemente Aguirre-Jarquin became the 164th person exonerated from death row in the United States and the 28th death row inmate exonerated from Florida.
Aguirre-Jarquin spent over 14 years imprisoned for a crime he did not commit, and the circumstances that led to his wrongful conviction are shocking. Despite the case against him being flimsy from the beginning, the District Attorney made a shocking move after the Florida Supreme Court overturned his conviction and pursued death for a second time even though anther person had confessed to the crime.
Fortunately, justice finally prevailed and the second case was thrown out when even more evidence of another person’s guilt poured in.
A Florida prosecutor, Ashley K. Albright, who is currently seeking the death penalty for a man named Michael Woodbury has asked for input from the local community on his sentence.
Woodbury, who is accused of killing a fellow inmate at the Okeechobee Correctional Institute, has pled guilty and claims he was acting in self-defense.
At Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty, we know the death penalty wastes millions of dollars a year. Based on the 44 executions carried out by Florida since 1976, the cost per execution is about $24 million. That’s money that could be better allocated for programs that actually deter violence.
But not only does this system waste money for an outcome that will seldom be reached, it also runs the risk of a wrongful con
