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A comment on California Gov Newsom commutes death sentences for all 548 people on death row. Parent comment

Re:California Gov Newsom commutes death sentences for all 54... by rich_sasha on Friday November 06, 2026 @01:04AM (#50388744)
Project Innocence helps exonerate innocent people. They claim that about 30% of their “clients” had admitted guilt. My understanding is that it’s mostly based on DNA evidence so not really a matter of opinion: https://innocenceproject.org/exonerations-data/

“Why” seems to be essentially coercion from the interviewers. People told that if they admit guilt then they’ll get a slap on the wrist and be let go, else go to costly trial etc.

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Re:California Gov Newsom commutes death sentences for all 54... by qingcharles on Friday November 06, 2026 @06:28PM (#50399916)
Yeah, that's what they did with Kevin Fox who spent 9 months in the jail getting regular off-camera beatings from the guards, because he'd been charged with raping and killing his own daughter, before the prosecution admitted they'd been hiding exculpatory DNA evidence.

https://chicagojustice.org/inside-kevin-foxs-appellate-court...

After winning a $16m verdict against the corrupt cops and prosecutor he moved to Alabama where he was hit in a head-on collision by a car in the wrong lane and perished.

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