Review of executed man's conviction boosts anti-death penalty lobby

[emad]

Gary Younge in New York
Wednesday July 20, 2005
The Guardian

A convicted murderer executed 20 years ago, could be the first person put to death to be declared innocent since capital punishment was reintroduced in the United States.

Jennifer Joyce, a St Louis district attorney, has decided to reopen the case of Larry Griffin, who was convicted in 1981 of the murder of Quintin Moss, a 19-year-old drug dealer who was shot dead. Griffin maintained his innocence to the end, but was put to death in 1995, aged 40, by lethal injection.

Since then the first police officer at the scene, another witness to the shooting and the victim's family have all raised doubts that Griffin was guilty.

The principlal witness for the prosecution, a convicted drug dealer, changed his account shortly before the execution but has since died.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1532150,00.html