List of exonerated death row inmates

This list contains names of people who were found guilty of capital crimes and placed on death row, and were later found to be wrongly convicted. Some people were exonerated posthumously.

This list includes individuals who were sentenced to death and had their sentences overturned by acquittal or pardon.^[1] The state listed is the state where the individual was convicted, the year listed is the year of release, and the case listed is the case that overturned their conviction.

This list does not include:

1. Posthumous pardons for individuals executed before 1950;
2. Inmates who were given life sentences when their country, province or state abolished the death penalty;
3. People who were threatened with death and never jailed;
4. People who were jailed by extralegal groups or courts, for example as often occurs in cases of sentences of stoning.

List by country

Japan

1980–1989

1983

• Sakae Menda (convicted 1949)^[2]

Taiwan

2012

• The case of Su Chien-ho: Su Chien-ho (蘇建和), Liu Bing-lang (劉秉郎), and Chuang Lin-hsun (莊林勳) were sentenced to death for the 1991 murder of Wu Ming-han and his wife Yeh Ying-lan in Hsichih, Taipei county, Taiwan. They were acquitted in 2012.^[3]

2016

• The case of Cheng Hsing-tse: Cheng Hsing-tse (鄭性澤) was sentenced to death for the 2002 murder of a police officer in Fengyuan, Taichung, Taiwan. He was acquitted in May 2016. ^[4]

United Kingdom

1966

• Timothy Evans, Convicted 1950. (posthumous, executed 1950)^[5][6]

1968

• Mahmood Hussein Mattan, Convicted 1952 (posthumous, executed 1952)^[7]
• Derek Bentley, Convicted 1952 (posthumous, executed 1953)^[8]

1969

• Death penalty for murder abolished.^[9][10]

1973

• Despite abolition in the UK, the separate legal systems meant death sentences still passed in Northern Ireland, Isle of Man and Channel Islands but with no likelihood of them being carried out. One Provisional Irish Republican Army member was sentenced to death for murder before this anomaly was abolished. European Union protocols signed in 1999 on human rights mean no death penalty statute can exist in an EU country.^[11]

United States

In October 2015, the Death Penalty Information Center said that there had been 156 exonerations of prisoners on death row in the United States since 1973.^[12]

1970–1979

1977

• Delbert Tibbs, Florida. Convicted 1974.^[13]

1980–1989

1987

• Joseph Green Brown. He was re-arrested in 2012 and charged with another murder in North Carolina.^[14]
• Perry Cobb. Illinois. Convicted October 15, 1979.^[15]
• Darby J. Tillis. Illinois. Convicted October 15, 1979. Perry Cobb and Darby Tillis, two African American men were convicted of First Degree Murder after a third trial by an all-white jury. The primary witness in the case, Phyllis Santini, was determined to be an accomplice of the actual killer by the Illinois Supreme Court. The Judge in the case, Thomas J. Maloney was later convicted of accepting bribes.^[16]

1989

• Randall Dale Adams, Texas (Ex Parte Adams, 768 S.W.2d 281) (Tex. Crim App. 1989). Convicted 1977.^[17][18] The Adams case was the subject of The Thin Blue Line (1988 film).
• US Army Master Sergeant Timothy B. Hennis, was exonerated in 1989 in North Carolina of a triple murder. In 2006 he was recalled to active service, court-martialed and reconvicted by the US Army in 2010 of the same murders, thereby dropping him from the list of those exonerated.^[19]

1990–1999

1993

• Walter McMillian, Alabama. Convicted 1988.^[20]
• Gregory R. Wilhoit, Oklahoma. Convicted 1987. Along with Ron Williamson, Wilhoit later became the subject of John Grisham's 2006 non-fiction book The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town.^[21]

1995

• Robert Charles Cruz, Illinois. Convicted 1966. (Cruz disappeared in 1997. His remains were found in 2007.^[22])

1996

• Joseph Burrows, Illinois. Convicted 1989. Joseph Burrows was released from death row after his attorney Kathleen Zellner persuaded the real killer to confess at the post-conviction hearing, and Peter Rooney, a reporter for the Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette, obtained a recantation from a key witness.^[23] The Burrows case was the subject of a book by Rooney titled Die Free: A True Story of Murder, Betrayal and Miscarried Justice.
• Gary Gauger Illinois. Convicted 1995.^[24]

1999

• Shareef Cousin, Louisiana (Louisiana v. Cousin, 710 So. 2d 1065 (1998)). Convicted 1996.^[25]
• Anthony Porter, Illinois. Convicted 1983.^[26]
• Ron Williamson, Oklahoma. Convicted 1988. Along with Gregory R. Wilhoit, Williamson later became the inspiration for and subject of John Grisham's 2006 non-fiction book The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town.^[21]

2000–2009

2000

• Earl Washington, Jr., Virginia (pardoned). Convicted 1994 (1984, without life sentence).^[27]

2002

• Juan Roberto Melendez-Colon, Florida. Convicted 1984.^[28][29][30]
• Ray Krone, Arizona (State v. Krone, 897 P.2d 621 (Ariz. 1995) (en banc)). Convicted 1992.^[31][32]

2003

• Nicholas Yarris, Pennsylvania Convicted 1982.^[33]
• John Thompson, Louisiana. Convicted 1985.^[34]

2004

• Alan Gell, North Carolina. Convicted 1995^[35]

2008

• Glen Edward Chapman, North Carolina. Convicted 1995.^[36]
• Levon "Bo" Jones, North Carolina. Convicted 1993.^[37]
• Michael Blair, Texas. Convicted 1994.^[38][39][40]

2009

• Nathson Fields, Illinois. Convicted 1986.^[41]
• Paul House, Tennessee. Convicted 1986.^[42][43]
• Daniel Wade Moore, Alabama. Convicted 2002.^[44]
• Ronald Kitchen, Illinois. Convicted 1988.^[45]
• Michael Toney, Texas. Convicted 1999. Toney later died in a car accident on October 3, 2009, just one month and a day after his exoneration.^[46]

2010–2015

2010

• Joe D'Ambrosio, Ohio. Convicted 1989. While he was freed in 2010, but not yet exonerated, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal by the state of Ohio challenging the unconditional writ of habeas corpus and bar to D'Ambrosio's re-prosecution on January 23, 2012, nearly 2 years later, making D'Ambrosio the 140th death row exoneree since 1973.^[47][48]
• Anthony Graves, Texas. Convicted 1994.^[49]

2011

• Gussie Vann, Tennessee. Convicted 1984

.^[50]

2012

• Damon Thibodeaux, Louisiana. Convicted 1997.^[51]
• Seth Penalver, Florida. Convicted 1994.^[52]

2013

• Reginald Griffin, Missouri. Convicted 1983.^[53]

2014

• Glenn Ford, Louisiana. Convicted 1984.^[54]
• Carl Dausch, Florida. Convicted 2011.^[55]
• Henry Lee McCollum and Leon Brown, North Carolina. Convicted 1984.^[56]
• Ricky Jackson and Wiley Bridgeman, Ohio. Convicted 1975.^[57]
• Kwame Ajamu (formerly Ronnie Bridgeman), Ohio. Convicted 1975.^[58]
• George Stinney Jr., South Carolina. Convicted in 1944 at the age of 14 for the murders of two girls and sentenced to death by electrocution. Exonerated posthumously in 2014. ^[59]

2015

• Debra Milke, Arizona. Convicted 1990.^[60]
• Anthony Ray Hinton, Alabama. Convicted 1985.^[61]
• Willie Manning, Mississippi. Convicted 1996.^[62]
• Alfred Brown, Texas. Convicted 2005.^[63]
• Lawrence William Lee, Georgia. Convicted 1987.^[64]
• Derral Wayne Hodgkins, Florida. Convicted 2013.^[65]
• William Antunes, Massachusetts. Convicted 1990.

Canada

• Steven Truscott was convicted of murder in 1960, and sentenced to hang. His sentence was commuted to life in prison four months later. His conviction was overturned in 2007.^[66]

See also

• Wrongful execution
• Death row
• Miscarriages of justice
• List of death row inmates in the United States
• List of women on death row in the United States
• Thomas Haynesworth
• List of wrongful convictions in the United States

References

External links

• "List of Those Freed from Death Row". Death Penalty Information Center.
• "Know the Cases: Browse the Profiles". The Innocence Project.
• Bluhm Legal Clinic: Center on Wrongful Convictions. Northwestern University School of Law.
• Sherrer, Hans. "Landmark Study Shows the Unreliability of Capital Trial Verdicts". The Independent Review. Justice: Denied.
• The Innocents Database
• Feldman, Meg (February 7, 2008). "Life After DNA Exoneration". Dallas Observer News.