"It Means We Will Never Make a Fatal Mistake"

"More defendants have been wrongfully convicted and exonerated in California than any other state in the nation--indicating significant risk of putting an innocent person to death.
"Until recently, we didn’t know that this was the case. At the National Registry of Exonerations, where I work as an investigator and writer, Illinois originally held the dubious distinction of having the most exonerations, with 111 since 1989. In September, however, California overtook it. The California count now stands at 120 exonerations since 1989."

Maurice Possley in The New Republic reports on efforts to end the death penalty in California.