IANAL, but I'm reminded of the Willingham case, (as mentioned in the cited article), and horrified that this happened. While I doubt Jones would have been cleared entirely, (he was there specifically to rob this liquor store with his accomplice), there's little question that evidence which should have been considered wasn't. Willingham was clearly innocent, Jones was not, but whether or not he should have been executed is a serious question.
I realize Ron White once got a lot of laughs for noting that while other states were doing away with the Death Penalty, Texas was installing an Express Lane, but I don't find this funny in the least. My personal view is that Tim McVeigh, for one example, should never have been executed, regardless of how evil his crimes were. It's bad enough that he has become a sort of martyr to the homicidal kooks who supported his evil, but that his punishment was so damnably short, that he never really had to own up to anyone -- including himself -- regarding the atrocity he committed makes it even worse.
For that matter, I am hopeful that rather than execute Osama Bin Laden, we simply lock him up in a Supermax prison and keep him under deep cover, that eventually, he's forgotten. It's the closest thing we have to an oubliette, and would be a far more effective punishment: He can make all the fatwas he wants, but no one will ever hear them. Nor should they.
Frankly, there aren't too many people I would want to see executed: Richard Allen Davis is the only one I can think of off the top of my head, but the evidence used against him, his own behavior, and his complete lack of remorse for the murder of Polly Klaas pretty much seal his fate in my book. Ronald Lee Coleman, who denied committing the murder in Virginia for which he was executed, was eventually damned by the very DNA evidence he claimed would clear him after he died. For me, the only reason to execute is when we have no doubt at all regarding someone's guilt or innocence, and only under very rare circumstances at that. (See above.) I'm not in favor, for example, of Scott Peterson sitting on Death Row for murdering his wife, Lacey, and his unborn son, Conor. I'd be a lot happier if he were forced to spend the rest of his life as a member of the general population at San Quentin. (Trust me: Been there on deliveries, and Peterson would not have it easy.)
Claude Jones may not have been a saint, but he damned well deserved the full protection of the law. That's a constitutional reality. I wouldn't have liked the man, and probably would have enjoyed planting a two-by-four across his head, but jamming a needle in his arm just to sate someone's blood-lust, rather than work towards achieving something that resembles justice, is somewhat perverse. I won't lose much sleep over his absence, but knowing how he wound up going out will.
