Life after death row: Preventing wrongful capital convictions and restoring innocence after exoneration

In Gregg v. Georgia, the Supreme Court overturned its ruling in Furman v. Georgia and held that the death penalty, as administered by the states, was not per se "cruel and unusual punishment" in violation of the Eighth Amendment. Yet errors continue to occur at an alarming rate in the capital punishment system - over one hundred death row inmates have been released pursuant to evidence of actual innocence since 1973. This Note examines the necessity of a dual approach to the problem of wrongful capital convictions: implementing systemic changes to prevent mistaken convictions and improving available remedies for those who have been wrongfully convicted and rightly released. Preventing future wrongful convictions in the United States requires confronting the problem from both sides. In keeping with the dual functions of the American criminal justice system - protecting the innocent and convicting the guilty - a comprehensive plan of reform must be both preventive and compensatory. Only by working both to decrease the risk of executing the innocent and to restore to innocence those who were wrongfully convicted will the judicial system regain its legitimacy.