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In death penalty cases, the quest for justice is not America’s highest value

  • Written by Austin Sarat, William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science, Amherst College
imageBetween 1976 and 2015, 80% of Louisiana's capital sentences were later reversed.Bernd Obermann/Getty Images

Jimmie Christian Duncan learned in April 2025 that a Louisiana judge had dismissed his capital murder conviction and he would no longer face the prospect of execution. In 1998, a jury convicted Duncan of murdering his girlfriend’s...

Read more: In death penalty cases, the quest for justice is not America’s highest value

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