Innocence and the Death Penalty

The most recent exoneree is Kwame Ajamu on December 9, 2014

List of Exonerees Since 1973 Description of each exoneration available by clicking the names on the list. Includes criteria for inclusion on list.

Innocence Database Searchable database of all exonerations since 1973 - allows you to search and sort for cases by year, state, race, and other variables. Description of each exoneration also available here by clicking the names on the list.

Exoneration Statistics

Exonerations by State
Exonerations by Year
Exonerations by Race

News and Developments - Current Year

News and Developments - Previous Years

2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002

Further Innocence Information:

Released From Death Row (Partial Innocence)
Executed Despite Doubts About Guilt
Causes of Wrongful Convictions
National Registry of Exonerations - provides detailed information about all known exonerations (for all crimes, not just death penalty crimes) in the United States since 1989 - cases in which a person was convicted of a crime and later cleared of all the charges.
Pardon of the Scottsboro Boys-2013
DPIC's Summary of the Innocence Protection Act of 2004
List of Exonerations in German: Unschuldige und ihre Faelle in Kuerze

DPIC Resources:

Read DPIC's 2004 Innocence Report

Innocence and the Death Penalty, 1997

Innocence and the Death Penalty, 1993

To contact individuals who have been exonerated from death row, visit

Witness to Innocence

For Information about Innocence Projects across the country, visit

The Innocence Project

Graph as of December 10, 2014

EXONERATIONS BY STATE

As of December 10, 2014 there have been 150 exonerations in 26 different States.

State	No	State	No	State	No	State	No	State	No
Florida	25	North Carolina	9	Georgia	5	Mississippi	3	Kentucky	1
Illinois	20	Ohio	9	New Mexico	4	Tennessee	3	Maryland	1
Texas	12	Arizona	8	Missouri	4	Indiana	2	Nebraska	1
Oklahoma	10	Pennsylvania	6	California	3	South Carolina	2	Nevada	1
Louisiana	10	Alabama	5	Massachusetts	3	Idaho	1	Virginia	1
								Washington	1

EXONERATIONS BY YEAR From 1973-1999, there was an average of 3.03 exonerations per year. From 2000-2013, there has been an average of 4.29 exonerations per year. (Graph as of Dec. 10, 2014).

To find the number of exonerations in any single year, use the innocence database.

EXONERATIONS BY RACE

RACE	EXONERATIONS
Black	78
White	58
Latino	12
Other	2

Last Updated Dec. 19, 2014

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From DPIC

FORMER DEATH ROW INMATES FREED IN OHIO

On November 21, 2014, Ricky Jackson and Wiley Bridgeman were released from prison in Ohio. Prosecutors filed a motion to drop charges against Jackson, Bridgeman, and their co-defendant, Kwame Ajamu (formerly, Ronnie Bridgeman), who had been released, but not exonerated, in 2003. A judge officially dismissed the charges against Jackson and Bridgeman. Ajamu's official exoneration is expected soon.

Ricky Jackson speaks to the media after his release. (photo, Univ. of Cincinnati)

The three men had been convicted of a 1975 murder on the testimony of a 12-year-old boy, who recently recanted, saying he had not witnessed the murder at all. All three defendants were sentenced to death. Upon his release, Jackson said, "The English language doesn’t even fit what I’m feeling. I’m on an emotional high. You sit in prison for so long and think about this day but when it actually comes you don’t know what you’re going to do, you just want to do something.”

Wiley Bridgeman

Following his release, Bridgeman said, "The bitterness is over with; I carried that too long.'' Jackson's and Bridgeman's 39 years in prison is the longest time between conviction and exoneration of any of those exonerated. Since 1973 there have been 149 exonerations of people sentenced to death in the U.S. including eight in Ohio. Kwame Ajamu remarked, “I was sentenced to die, as was Ricky and my brother. We were 17, 18, and 20. For a crime we didn’t do.”

Related resources:

DPIC's List of Exonerees
Press Release from DPIC on Jackson's Exoneration
M. Gillispie, "Judge dismisses two men charged in 1975 slaying," Associated Press, November 21, 2014.

Kwame Ajamu waiting for his brother to be released. (photo, R. Dissell)

From DPIC

Read about the exonerations of Leon Brown and Henry McCollum in North Carolina.

Podcast

Listen to DPIC's Innocence Podcast.

Have innocent inmates ever been executed?

There is no way to tell how many of the almost 1,400 people executed since 1976 may have been innocent. Courts do not generally entertain claims of innocence once the defendant is dead. Defense attorneys move on to other cases where clients' lives can still be saved. (see possible cases of those executed who might have been innocent).

Recently, the case of Cameron Willingham (pictured) has been in the news. He was convicted of murdering his three children by arson in a 1991 house fire. He was executed in 2004. A new report from a national arson expert, prepared for the Texas Forensic Science Commission, has concluded that the original investigation of Willingham's case was seriously flawed and could not support a finding of arson. Read More

See also: D. Grann, "Trial by Fire: Did Texas execute an innocent man?" The New Yorker, Sept. 7, 2009.