Short Name: Wrongful Execution Resolution
Year Adopted: 2014
Meeting Where Adopted: Annual
Policy Number: 2014 AM 110A
Subjects: Death Penalty, Post-Conviction/Habeas Corpus, Actual Innocence
Policy
Wrongful-Execution Resolution (2014)
Resolution Text:
RESOLVED, That the American Bar Association urges each federal, state, and territorial jurisdiction where capital punishment is permitted to adopt a statute or rule providing an appropriate judicial procedure whereby successors or a legal entity on behalf of an executed individual, may bring and litigate a claim that the individual executed was in fact innocent of the capital offense.
FURTHER RESOLVED, That the judicial procedure for determining whether there has been a wrongful execution should allow for a fair determination of actual innocence, including access to discovery and a standard of proof and procedures that provide a reasonable opportunity to prove innocence.
FURTHER RESOLVED, That such statute or rule shall provide for the award of monetary compensation to the successors of the wrongfully executed individual or where no successors pursue such compensation, the legal entity who has successfully established the wrongful execution, for the period of the wrongfully executed individual’s wrongful incarceration awaiting his or her execution and also for the specific act of wrongfully executing the individual.