4 Years After Arkansas Executed Ledell Lee, DNA Points to Someone Else

Ledell Lee was executed by the state of Arkansas for murder, with Lee insisting to the end that he was innocent

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On April 20, 2017, Ledell Lee was executed by the state of Arkansas for murder, with Lee insisting to the end that he was innocent of the crime. A new test of DNA evidence in the case, which the state refused to do before executing him, points to a different suspect than Lee.

Lee was put to death four years ago as part of a rush in which Arkansas tried to execute eight people in 11 days, so that the state could use scarce lethal injection drugs before they expired. In that mad dash, four men were executed, three had their executions stayed, and one was granted clemency.

Lee was one of the four put to death after Neil Gorsuch, in his first vote as a member of the Supreme Court, joined a 5–4 ruling to allow the execution to proceed.

Even then, Lee’s case was considered one of the most seriously flawed, with a distinct chance that the state would be putting an innocent man to death.

That decision to allow the execution to go forward is looking worse and worse.

Read more here.

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