NEW YORK, 9 APR - Dopo dieci anni in prigione un detenuto dell'arizona e' stato scagionato dal dna: ray krone ha varcato i cancelli della arizona state prison di yuma diventando il centesimo 'morto vivente' nella storia della giustizia americana da quando nel 1973 e' stata ripristinata la pena capitale.  

Krone era stato condannato a morte per un delitto commesso nel 1991. aveva sempre protestato la sua innocenza e, dopo due anni passati nel famigerato cellblock 6 del carcere di Florence, aveva ottenuto la revisione del processo.      

Il secondo appuntamento con la giustizia aveva confermato la sua colpevolezza ma commutato in ergastolo la pena di morte. oggi pero' nuovi test del dna hanno dimostrato l'estraneita' di Krone al caso e gli abolizionisti in america hanno festeggiato: ''lui e gli altri 99 dimostrano che il sistema della pena di morte non funziona'', ha proclamato oggi Amnesty International.   

''Queste cento persone rappresentano l'eccezione alla regola del sistema americano della pena di morte: nel frattempo altri innocenti che aspettano l'esecuzione nel bracci della morte rischiano di essere erroneamente ammazzati'', ha proclamato William Schultz, direttore esecutivo di Amnesty Internazional usa.   

Secondo Schultz i governatori ''dovrebbero riconoscere i difetti strutturali del sistema e decidere un blocco indefinito delle esecuzioni nei loro stati. se non lo faranno si troveranno le mani macchiate di sangue innocente''.  

Krone e' uscito di galera ieri pomeriggio: ''ho pianto quando ho visto il sole'', ha detto l'ex condannato ai giornalisti dell''Arizona Republic' dopo la liberazione.   

L'ex detenuto era stato condannato per aver violentato e ucciso la cameriera kim ancona in un bar di Phoenix nel 1991. ci sono voluti dieci anni di sofferenze dietro le sbarre prima che il test del dna lo esonerasse del delitto e facesse invece puntare la prua delle indagini su Kenneth Philips, un uomo di 36 anni attualmente in prigione a Florence, Arizona, per un reato sessuale non collegato.   

''Krone si merita le nostre scuse. e' stato fatto un errore.cosa possiamo dirgli? che abbiamo sbagliato e che cercheremo di fare meglio. e che ci dispiace'', ha detto il procuratore della contea di Maricopa Rick Romley. l'ex detenuto a sua volta non ha voluto dar la colpa a nessuno per i dieci anni di vita che gli sono stati rubati: ''non accuso nessuno. e' stato forse un errore, e' stata forse incompetenza'', ha detto.   

Fin dalla prima condanna Krone era vissuto protestando alla noia la sua innocenza: ''non sono stato io: come potrebbe esserci quindi la prova inconfutabile che mi incolpa?'', aveva detto. l'uomo era stato condannato sulla base di semplici indizi, ma l'analisi del dna, richiesta dopo anni dal difensore di Krone Alan Simpson, aveva finalmente dimostrato l'estraneit� al delitto.

The Arizona Republic

100th Death Row Inmate Exonerated

     Former death row inmate Ray Krone was released from prison on Monday in Arizona after DNA testing showed that he did not commit the murder for which he was convicted 10 years ago. Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley and Phoenix Police Chief Harold Hurtt announced at a news conference on Monday that new DNA tests vindicated Krone and that they would seek his release pending a hearing next month to vacate the murder conviction.  Romley stated, "[Krone] deserves an apology from us, that's for sure. A mistake was made here. . . . What do you say to him? An injustice was done and we will try to do better. And we're sorry."

    Krone was first convicted in 1992, based largely on circumstantial evidence and testimony that bite marks on the victim matched Krone's teeth.  He was sentenced to death. Three years later he received a new trial, but was again found guilty and sentenced to life in prison in 1996. Krone's post-conviction defense attorney, Alan Simpson, obtained a court order for DNA tests.  The results not only exculpated Krone, but they pointed to another man, Kenneth Phillips, as the assailant.  Prosecutor William Culbertson told Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Alfred Fenzel that the chances are 1.3 quadrillion to one that DNA found in saliva on the victim's tank top came from Phillips.  

     Krone is the 100th inmate freed from death row since 1973 and the 12th in which DNA testing played a substantial factor.  See also DPIC's Press Release and Innocence and the Death Penalty.

 Death is Different

April 10, 2002

Ray Krone, who spent 10 years in prison for sexual assault and murder, including time on Arizona's death row, was freed on Monday after a DNA test exonerated him and cast suspicion on another prisoner. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, Mr. Krone was the 100th innocent man nearly put to death in this country since 1973. Given the way death-penalty crimes are prosecuted, as the wrongful-conviction scandals in Illinois a few years back showed, a certain number of mistaken convictions are essentially built into the process.

A sad reality of the criminal justice system is that in all too many cases, defendants are convicted of serious crimes on the flimsiest of evidence. Juries often hang guilty verdicts on the word of a single witness, despite numerous academic studies showing that witnesses are frequently unreliable. Courts admit evidence of dubious quality at trial, and send defendants to prison - or to death - on the basis of it. The case against Mr. Krone was largely circumstantial, including expert but apparently inaccurate testimony that his teeth matched bite marks on the victim.

In the face of this powerful evidence that the system is broken, the courts should be chastened - and they should be working hard to build in protections against executing the wrongfully convicted. Sadly, however, the Supreme Court appeared unconcerned about the fairness of the death penalty in its ruling in a case two weeks ago involving effective assistance of counsel.

In the case, the court ruled that the conviction of a death row inmate, Walter Mickens Jr., did not violate the Sixth Amendment's right to counsel even though the lawyer who was appointed to represent Mr. Mickens had previously represented the 17-year-old boy he was charged with killing. It is shocking that the Supreme Court would consider that this arrangement meets the constitutional standard of effective assistance of counsel. "A rule that allows the State to foist a murder victim's lawyer onto his accused [killer] is not only capricious," Justice John Paul Stevens noted in dissent, "it poisons the integrity of our adversary system of justice."

The Supreme Court has long professed the principle that "death is different," that in order to deprive someone of his life, the state must be punctilious about providing him every procedural protection.

Because the court has failed to live up to that standard, it is vital that bills currently before both houses on Capitol Hill gain the support they need to become law. The bipartisan Innocence Protection Act would establish national standards for the representation of capital defendants and provide resources to meet them. The act would also require the preservation of biological evidence that may later prove crucial on appeal and ensure death row inmates access to DNA testing.

This week's discomforting milestone, as calculated by the Death Penalty Information Center, is further evidence of deep unfairness in the death penalty system and of the urgent need for a law reducing its inequities.