Death and Harmless Error: A Rhetorical Response to Judging Innocence
| 23rd February 2008
Professor Garrett’s impressive empirical analysis of the first 200 postconviction DNA exonerations in the United States (“Garrett Study”) has the potential to affect contemporary debates surrounding our nation’s criminal justice system. This Response explores this potential by harnessing the Study’s data in support of arguments for and against a contested doctrinal proposition—that guilt-based harmless error rules should never apply in death penalty appeals.
