Fortunately we've made some progress in terms of rights of the accused in the last 70 years. It's stories like these that provide strong arguments against the death penalty.<p>But the pendulum does swing the other way, to weekend furloughs for murderers sentenced to life imprisonment without parole.[1] That particular individual played a big role in the 1988 US Presidential election.<p>[1] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willie_Horton" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willie_Horton</a>