Minneapolis - A judge has said innocent people may have been executed in the US and "serious questions" are being raised about the death penalty. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor cited the cases of 90 death-row inmates exonerated since 1973 before their death sentences could be carried out as evidence that innocent people may have been executed.
"If statistics are any indication, the system may well be allowing some innocent defendants to be executed," she was quoted as telling a group of woman lawyers in Minneapolis on Monday. States have put to death more than 700 prisoners in the past 25 years. The federal government resumed executions on June 11th after a 38-year hiatus with the execution of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.