CARSON CITY, Nev. — A new study shows that judges handling appeals from condemned Nevada inmates find errors in two-thirds of the cases--a startling finding that has fueled new efforts to stop executions.
The Columbia University study says the errors helped death row convicts win 34 of 101 appeals filed in state courts from 1973 to 1995. The report also listed two of four appeals in federal courts that succeeded.
The study says Nevada's error rate matches a national rate that has reached "epidemic" levels, and points to problems such as poor defense representation and improper tactics by overzealous prosecutors.
In Nevada, the American Civil Liberties Union mainly blamed prosecutors and pointed to recent high-profile cases in which evidence favorable to the defense was withheld.
"There's no question that the culture of Nevada reinforces a certain amount of recklessness on the part of its district attorneys," says University of Nevada, Reno professor Richard Siegel, head of the Nevada ACLU.
"I'm not sure the public cares," Siegel adds. "The public cheers on the cowboy prosecutor. But I think things will change when the public stops cheering them on."
Siegel says the report will help anti-death penalty groups that have formed in northern and southern Nevada. They plan to ask the 2001 Legislature for a moratorium on capital punishment and changes to ensure it's not used on the mentally disabled or on anyone under 18.
Lawmakers in recent years have tried to speed the appeals process in capital cases, and Siegel fears such efforts will continue.
"But the data in the report says that would be a horrible mistake," he says. "It says we need all the time that we're taking now--and more."
The study comes at a time of increased debate over capital punishment. That debate focuses in part on the Nevada case of Jack Mazzan, whose death sentence was canceled last January by the state Supreme Court after he spent 20 years on death row. He now faces a retrial next January in Reno.
In reversing Mazzan's conviction, the court criticized prosecutors for not giving the defense information about other suspects-- alleged drug dealers who hadn't been paid for thousands of dollars' worth of drugs supplied to the victim, Richard Minor Jr.
Elsewhere in the United States, Republican Gov. George Ryan of Illinois imposed a moratorium on capital punishment in his state after 13 death row inmates were exonerated.
