by Mary H. Cooper

About the author: Mary H. Cooper is a staff writer for CQ Researcher,a weekly report on current issues.

It has been more than three years since Rolando Cruz was cleared of the charges that landed him on death row, but there's still bitterness in his voice. "I did 12 years, three months and three days," he told a recent conference on capital punishment. "They did kill me. I am who I am now because this is who they made."

Cruz and another man, Alejandro Hernandez, were sentenced to death for the 1983 abduction, rape and murder of 10-year-old Jeanine Nicarico of Naperville, Ill. It was the kind of high-profile crime that prompts communities to demand quick action by law enforcement officers. DuPage County authorities complied by charging Cruz and Hernandez with Jeanine's murder.

Both...