Three New York Times videos present arguments against the death penalty and highlight the role of “junk science” in convictions

NEW YORK, NY – A trio of videos released by The New York Times provide three perspectives on the urgent need to abolish the death penalty, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

The videos include one from Brian Wharton, a former police detective who believes he helped put an innocent man on death row; one from Brett Malone, who is currently fighting to save the life of his mother's killer; and one from Charles Don Flores, who still faces the death penalty in Texas.

A report by the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) describes the three videos as being consistent with The New York Times long-standing resistance to the death penalty.

In his video, Malone describes how he initially harbored hatred for Jeremiah Manning, his mother's killer, who slit her throat in the woods behind her house and was subsequently sentenced to death for murder.

But Malone now argues: “Killing Jeremiah will not bring us closure” and is calling for Manning's sentence to be commuted to life imprisonment without parole.

One reason for his change of heart, Malone said in the NY Times video, was that he learned that Manning's mother and family still supported him and visited him frequently in prison.

Malone notes that Manning's execution “will result in more harm, more pain and more suffering, not only for my family, but for his family. That's something that people often forget.”

Malone argues in the video that the death penalty avoids the opportunity for healing and redemption.

“We are good at judging and punishing people,” Malone explains, “but not so good at repairing the harm we have done.”

Meanwhile, former Texas police detective Wharton describes in his video the role he played in the conviction and death sentence of Robert Roberson, an autistic man convicted of murdering his daughter. The conviction was based on a limited understanding of shaken baby syndrome, which, according to the New York Times, turned out to be incorrect.

“I deeply regret that we chose the easiest path,” Wharton told the ^ “New York Times: The New York Times”. Wharton says he believes Roberson's autism played a role in his conviction and that he is now convinced Roberson's daughter died of completely natural causes. Despite this, Roberson's execution is scheduled for October 17, the DPIC said.

Norman Kuthgelch, the neuroscientist credited with discovering shaken baby syndrome, was later in life critical of the use of the diagnosis to convict parents of murder, according to an NPR report.

Finally in his New York Times In the video, Flores speaks from a Texas prison where he has been awaiting execution for more than 20 years.

Flores was convicted and sentenced to death even though someone else had confessed to the crime, writes the NYT, and although the key witness in the Elizabeth Black murder case in 1998 initially failed to recognize Flores during a lineup and gave a description that did not match Flores.

In a 1998 video, the witness, a woman named Jill Barganier, is seen undergoing detective hypnosis, a technique once believed to help people recall memories in great detail.

After a hypnosis, the NYT, Barganier was suddenly able to identify Flores as the murderer, which contradicted the description she had previously given to police. Just states that investigative hypnosis has now been exposed as a pseudoscience.

Although both convictions were based on “junk science,” and although, according to DPIC, Texas has had a junk science law in place since 2013 that “establishes a process by which inmates convicted based on faulty forensic evidence can request a retrial,” both Roberson and Flores are scheduled to be executed.

Former Texas Judge Elsa Alcada and Estelle Hebron Jones, director of special projects for the Texas Defender Services, are quoted by DPIC as saying that the junk science law has “troubling flaws.”

In fact, a report by the Texas Defender Services found that 80 percent of incarcerated individuals who attempted to take advantage of the Junk Sciences Act lost their appeals.

Manning, Roberson and Flores are all still on death row.

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Breaking News Everyday Injustice

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Brett Malone Brian Wharton Charles Don Flores Need to Abolish the Death Penalty New York Times Videos Report from the Death Penalty Information Center