Man Seeks Retrial (cont'd)___________________ --home--

As a growing number of states, such as New Mexico and Maryland, are revisiting the death penalty, specifically as it relates to the execution of people who are later found to be innocent, the nature of capital trials and how they affect the behavior of juries is one of the consequences of the death penalty that is sometimes overlooked. On June 24, 2004, the death penalty was ruled unconstitutional in New York. The nine-year period, from 1995, when the death penalty was applicable in New York did not result in a single execution and there are no longer any inmates on death row, but Bell may have been a victim of its consequences even though he escaped its ultimate punishment.

Kevin Doyle, the executive director of the Capital Defender Office, a state-run program helping poor defendants with capital cases, and one of the lawyers who defended Bell, explained that two things separate capital cases from regular murder trials. The first is that the types of juries picked for a capital trial -- one where the death penalty is being sought -- are much more likely to convict.

Columbia University Law School professor Daniel Richman said, “There is a lot of social science evidence that those juries are more likely to convict on the guilt portion of the trial.”

Second, Doyle said, all defendants are allowed to appeal, even those sentenced to death. But once a defendant is convicted in a capital case and  not given the death penalty, Doyle  believes that appellate judges -- those who can overturn wrongful convictions – may be less inclined to review the case.

“When there is no death sentence, appeals are tough because the judges feel they already got a break,” Doyle said.

Bell has been in Green Haven Correctional Facility, a maximum security prison an hour north of Manhattan, for 11 years. He is now 31 years old. He is trying to make the most of his life. Dinnerstein calls him a “model inmate.” He participates in a kind of “scared straight” program to show troubled youths the realities of prison life. He has written books and teaches writing to fellow inmates.

“Its hard sitting in jail for a crime I didn’t do,” said Bell during a telephone conversation from prison. “Its harder to sit in jail for a crime I don’t know anything about.”

He corresponds with Dinnerstein frequently.

In one letter, dated Nov. 18, 2007, he wrote:

“Can you believe it Mitch next month make’s 11 years of this hellish experience, every years on new years. I pray to God that he would ease this heavy load off my shoulders, and grant me some sort of relief or some light at this endless dark tunnel that never seem’s to end…”

Bell’s lawyers, who are working for a small fraction of their fee or sometimes completely free of charge, remain realistic about their client’s chances of success. Even if Bell successfully appeals at the federal level, the government can appeal the appeal. That can take another two years. If the government’s appeal fails, there will be a retrial, which could take another several years. If the appeal fails, Bell will spend the rest of his life in prison.

“People come up to me and slap me on the back and say, ‘Great, no executions in 12 years!’ ”  Doyle said. “But George Bell may be in prison for a crime he did not commit. It haunts me.”

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Slideshow: Hear from George Bell's Family

Click map to see U.S. death penalty stats

George Bell's letter from prison