Received by e-mail from the National Coalition Against the Death Penalty (NCADP):

The National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty issued the following statement Friday by Executive Director Diann Rust-Tierney:

Justice Sandra Day O’Connor has played an important role as the Supreme Court has begun to grapple more directly with the unfairness in the administration of the death penalty. She often cast the pivotal vote in close cases.

“Justice O’Connor expressed concern about the risk of innocent people being sentenced to death. Addressing a group of women lawyers in Minnesota, she once said,

‘If statistics are any indication, the system may well be allowing some innocent defendants to be executed. More often than we want to recognize, some innocent defendants have been convicted and sentenced to death.’”