Death penalty film trip: 5,000 miles of flaws and false confessions

One for Ten project comes to an end having filmed series of shorts highlighting injustice in US capital punishment system

The journey has taken them from Philadelphia to Albuquerque via false confession, unreliable witnesses, official misconduct and racism.

The One for Ten road trip comes to an end this week after a 5,200-mile cross-country trek to interview 10 death row exonerees and make a short film about each that highlights different flaws in the US capital punishment process.

The name of the project is inspired by the more than 1,300 executions and 142 exonerations since the death penalty was reinstated in the US in 1976 – a remarkably high number of errors considering the gravity of the punishment and avowed thoroughness of the system.

The film-makers are now in New Mexico to meet Juan Melendez. He spent more than 17 years on death row in Florida, convicted largely thanks to testimony from a convicted felon who held a grudge against him - even though another man had made a confession in a recorded interview that was never played at trial.

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Source: The Guardian, May 16, 2013

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