Innocence Blog

Exoneree Doug Warney calls for end to New York death penalty

Posted: May 29, 2007

Doug Warney, who was exonerated in 2006 after serving nine years for a murder he didn’t commit, published a column in the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle last week calling for state lawmakers to abolish the death penalty for good.

In early 1996, I became the first person charged capitally under New York's new death penalty statute. The district attorney at the time said I was a monster who deserved to die. Fortunately, the grand jury indicted me only for second-degree murder. Otherwise, I could have easily received the death penalty. I was sentenced to only 25 years to life for a murder I had nothing to do with. In some ways, I was lucky.

Read the full column here. (Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, 05/22/07)