Is it fair?

When the United States Supreme Court suspended the death penalty from 1973 to 1976, it did so out of concern that capital punishment administered at the time violated both the constitutional prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment and the constitutional guarantee of due process.

Seven condemned Texas inmates have been released on account of actual innocence: they did not do the crimes of which they were actually convicted. These seven account for about one percent of Texans sentenced to death since 1976. They spent an average of ten years on Death Row before they were proven innocent. In most cases, the exonerated inmates had captured the attention of the media or celebrities, and private law firms have provided pro bono (at no charge) the extensive work necessary. Questions of innocence remain about several current Death Row inmates who have not attracted special attention.

In the 1972 United States Supreme Court decision Furman v. Georgia, declaring capital punishment unconstitutional, Justice Thurgood Marshall said, "No matter how careful courts are, the possibility of perjured testimony, mistaken honest testimony, and human error remain all too real. We have no way of judging how many innocent persons have been executed, but we can be certain there were some."