This article published in the Huffington Post discusses former inmate, Abel Hidalgo, and how he spent time in prison for a crime he didn't commit as well as how this changed his views on the death penalty.

Arrested for the murder of a woman in Arizona, Hidalgo spent more than ten years in prison including three of which were on death row.  He states that his case was treated poorly when evidence was omitted and in 1992 he was convicted of murder.  The death penalty is supposed to be applied to the worst offenders, but it's more often applied to the defendants with the worst lawyers(Krone, 2017).  In 2002, prosecutors were able to use advancements in DNA testing to prove Hidalgo's innocence and have him released.

Hidalgo is now using his case to petition the Supreme Court to do away with the death penalty in Arizona.  Once a supporter of the death penalty, he now questions the system due to its inability to remain fair.  He touches on the problem with race and demographics often being a determining factor as to how someone is sentenced.  Backed from statistics showing the decline in the number of executions performed, he urges that the support is now leaning towards ending the death penalty entirely.
    

One issue of grave concern is whether the U.S. justice system can ensure that people are never wrongfully executed for crimes they did not commit. (MacKinnon, 2017).  The article also mentions, Marty Stroud, a former prosecutor in Louisiana who caused an innocent man, Glenn Ford, to serve 30 years on death row before being exonerated and released (Krone, 2017). Clearly the system has flaws and unfortunately innocent people have lost their lives, but is this enough of a reason to eradicate the death penalty as the consequence allegedly reserved for the most violent offenders?

References:

Krone, R. (2017, November 09). Wrongful Convictions Like Mine Are Why It's Time To End The Death Penalty. Retrieved November 17, 2017, from https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/arizona-wrongly-sentenced-me-to-death-and-my-exoneration-proves-the-death-penalty-is-flawed_us_5a0487dee4b0937b51104054
   

Mackinnon, B. & Fiala, A. (2017). Ethics: Theory and contemporary issues. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.