Rates of reversible error and the risk of wrongful execution

Innocent fatalities are a concern of all social activity with a capacity to kill. This is especially true when the social activity is the death penalty since an innocent person's execution is not simply a tragic collateral consequence of activity with a non-fatal objective. A method developed by a multidisciplinary team at Columbia indicates that there is a substantial risk of innocent fatalities in the operation of the death penalty and reveals a need for ongoing risk assessment in the process of administering the penalty.