help getting data from false conviction in death row study

[D]

I'm a researcher with nuanced opinions about the death penalty. I would like to scrutinize the statistical methods used in the 2014 study "Rate of false conviction of criminal defendants who are sentenced to death", in which the authors "estimate that if all death-sentenced defendants remained under sentence of death indefinitely at least 4.1% would be exonerated. We conclude that this is a conservative estimate of the proportion of false conviction among death sentences in the United States." 

Scrutinizing their methods is too hard to do if I have to recreate their cleaned data set. I asked the authors for the data, and they said no. Was hoping someone on this site might have some idea of how to pressure the authors to release their data. 

[josephdphillips]

Oct 18, 2016 9:07:20 GMT -6 D said:

I'm a researcher with nuanced opinions about the death penalty. I would like to scrutinize the statistical methods used in the 2014 study "Rate of false conviction of criminal defendants who are sentenced to death", in which the authors "estimate that if all death-sentenced defendants remained under sentence of death indefinitely at least 4.1% would be exonerated. We conclude that this is a conservative estimate of the proportion of false conviction among death sentences in the United States."  Scrutinizing their methods is too hard to do if I have to recreate their cleaned data set. I asked the authors for the data, and they said no. Was hoping someone on this site might have some idea of how to pressure the authors to release their data. 

You're chasing your tail. No two people will agree on what makes a conviction "false."

Moreover, strictly speaking, a functioning criminal justice system does not require perfect trials, perfect legal representation, perfect convictions.

Perfect justice is neither attainable or desirable.

[D]

For the record, organizations that work to overturn wrongful convictions only work on cases where they believe the convicted person is completely, objectively innocent. On death row, that means the person was convicted of murder, but they did not murder the person or participate in the murder. If they had the resources, I'm sure they would try to overturn other cases where they believe there was misconduct in the judicial process, but aren't convinced the convicted person innocent. But they absolutely do NOT have the resources. See e.g. www.thestar.com/news/gta/2016/10/21/innocence-canada-becoming-shadow-of-its-former-self.html

[Sparky]

Oct 24, 2016 14:32:39 GMT -6 D said:

For the record, organizations that work to overturn wrongful convictions only work on cases where they believe the convicted person is completely, objectively innocent. On death row, that means the person was convicted of murder, but they did not murder the person or participate in the murder. If they had the resources, I'm sure they would try to overturn other cases where they believe there was misconduct in the judicial process, but aren't convinced the convicted person innocent. But they absolutely do NOT have the resources. See e.g. www.thestar.com/news/gta/2016/10/21/innocence-canada-becoming-shadow-of-its-former-self.html

That's not true at all.  They choose cases where they believe there is a weakness in the evidence that they can exploit.  They dont give a damn if they defendant is guilty or not.  Their goal is to make the public distrust the justice system. 

[hawg]

you simply cannot execute an innocent person without first convicting an innocent person. perhaps you and these "groups" efforts would be better served where the problem may actually lie.