Death Penalty: Convicts' Unlikely Allies

Newsweek, December, 2005 by Sarah Childress

In the end, Kenneth Boyd, the 1,000th convict to be executed in the United States since capital punishment was reinstated in 1976, had some unusual advocates: two jurors who sentenced him to death in North Carolina nearly two decades ago. Sue Griffin and Sylvia Coeburn, long troubled by the verdict, petitioned the governor for clemency. "I felt like I was pushed into making the decision of the 10 other jurors," Coeburn says. "I didn't feel comfortable with it, but I didn't know my rights as a juror."

Although they didn't succeed--Boyd was executed last Friday--the women represent a small but growing number of jurors in capital murder cases who've had second thoughts and are coming forward. Emboldened by a recent spate of exonerations and reports of mishandled evidence,...

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