Exonerations in the USA

• Total number of death row exonerations in the USA since 1973: 138
  
  
• Average number of years between being sentenced to death and exoneration: 9.8 years
  
  
• Number of cases in which DNA played a substantial factor in establishing innocence: 17

• To see a complete list of exonerations maintained by DPIC: http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?scid=6&did=110
  
  
• DPIC's criteria for inclusion: Defendants must have been convicted, sentenced to death and subsequently either: a) their conviction was overturned AND i) they were acquitted at re-trial or ii) all charges were dropped; or b) they were given an absolute pardon by the Governor based on new evidence of innocence

• The most common causes of wrongful convictions are; eyewitness error, government misconduct, junk science, snitch testimony and false confessions
  

California Exonerations

• Read DPF's Report "Wrongful Convictions in California Capital Cases" released March 28, 2008.
  
  
• This report details the cases of thirteen men and one woman who were convicted of first degree murder in California and later freed after a court concluded that they had been wrongfully convicted.
  
  
•  In six of the cases discussed in this report, the individuals were actually sentenced to death.
  
  
• In three cases, prosecutors sought a death sentence but the jury chose life without parole instead.
  
  
• Five other significant wrongful conviction cases are included because in at least four of these cases, a death sentences likely would have been sought if legal decisions had not temporarily barred prosecutors from doing so. In the fifth case, one wrongful murder conviction subsequently led to another murder conviction which resulted in a death sentence.