The Wrong Man - 99.11

"Howard Marsellus, a former chairman of the Louisiana pardon board, admits that \nhe was responding to political pressure when he voted, in 1984, to execute \nTimothy Baldwin, a man he believed was innocent of the bludgeoning death of an \neighty-five-year-old woman. "I'm guilty as sin," Marsellus says. "I did \nsomething morally wrong. I gave in to the prestige and power, the things that \nwent with my job. I knew what the governor, the man who appointed me, wanted: no \nrecommendation for clemency in any death case." Marsellus says he is haunted by \nBaldwin's execution. "The man walked in [to the execution chamber], grabbed the \nmicrophone, and looked dead in my face and said, 'Y'all are about to execute an \ninnocent man and someday you'll have to answer for this.' Man, I will carry this \nto my grave."" http://www.theatlantic.com/past/issues/99nov/9911wrongman.htm The Atalantic, November 1999, The Wrong Man by Alan Berlow It is better to risk saving a guilty person than to condemn an innocent one. --Voltaire

http://www.theatlantic.com/past/issues/99nov/991...

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