At least 202 people sentenced to death in the United States have been exonerated since 1973, according to the Death Penalty Information Center’s running tally.1Death Penalty Information Center. Innocence That works out to roughly one exoneration for every eight executions carried out over the same period. The most recent addition to the list, Elwood Jones in Ohio, was exonerated in December 2025.2Death Penalty Information Center. The Death Penalty in 2025: Innocence and Clemency
The count starts in 1973 rather than 1976, when Gregg v. Georgia formally reinstated capital punishment, because several people sentenced to death before that ruling were later cleared as well.
What the One-in-Eight Ratio Does and Doesn’t Say
The one-in-eight figure compares two totals: known exonerations against completed executions. It is not a claim that 12.5 percent of everyone on death row is innocent. Some innocent people almost certainly die in prison, get executed, or never get access to the evidence and legal help needed to prove their case. The known error rate is a floor, not a ceiling.
The 202 figure also uses a strict definition. A death row exoneration means one of three things happened: the person was acquitted of all charges at retrial, the prosecution dismissed all charges, or a governor granted a full pardon based on innocence. Sentence reductions, commutations, and convictions vacated on procedural grounds do not count. Neither does a case where someone’s death sentence was overturned but the person then pleaded guilty to a lesser charge. The list tracks people who walked out with a clean record on the charges that put them on death row.
Why Wrongful Death Sentences Happen
No single cause explains 202 wrongful convictions. Most cases involve several failures stacked together: a mistaken identification, a prosecutor cutting corners, a defense attorney who didn’t push back. A few patterns come up repeatedly.
Official Misconduct
The National Registry of Exonerations found that roughly 78 percent of death row exonerations involved some form of official misconduct by police or prosecutors.3National Registry of Exonerations. Race and Wrongful Convictions in the United States, 2022 That includes prosecutors withholding evidence favorable to the defense, in violation of the disclosure duty established in Brady v. Maryland.4Justia. Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 (1963) It also covers police feeding information to witnesses, coercing confessions, and manipulating lineups.
Eyewitness Misidentification
Eyewitness testimony carries heavy weight with juries but is less reliable than most people assume. Memory shifts under stress, and suggestive lineup procedures can turn a tentative guess into confident courtroom testimony. In violent capital cases those distortions are especially pronounced.
Flawed Forensic Evidence
Some techniques once presented as scientific proof have since been discredited. A 2009 National Academy of Sciences report found that bite mark analysis lacked adequate scientific foundations. FBI studies cited in the same report showed that roughly 12.5 percent of hairs declared a “match” by microscopic examiners actually came from different people when retested with DNA.5Office of Justice Programs. Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States: A Path Forward
DNA as a Corrective
DNA testing has become the strongest tool for undoing wrongful convictions. Federal law gives people sentenced to death for federal offenses the right to request DNA testing of preserved evidence if the results could raise a reasonable probability of innocence.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 3600 – DNA Testing Most states have similar statutes. Not every exoneration involves DNA; many rely on recanted testimony or proof of misconduct.
How Long the Wait Has Become
People exonerated in 2024 had spent an average of 38.7 years incarcerated before their convictions were overturned, the highest figure ever recorded.7Death Penalty Information Center. New Analysis: Innocent Death-Sentenced Prisoners Wait Longer than Ever for Exoneration The wait has roughly tripled over the past two decades.
Half of all death row exonerations in history took more than ten years. Among people exonerated since 2013, more than half waited 25 years or longer. Since 2017, every death row exoneration has involved a sentence at least ten years old.8Death Penalty Information Center. Time on Death Row
Several forces drive the trend. Courts have narrowed the procedural windows for challenging convictions. Physical evidence degrades or gets lost. Witnesses die. Appeals sit in queues for years.
Where Exonerations Cluster
The 202 cases are not spread evenly. A handful of states account for most of them. Florida leads with 30 exonerations.9Death Penalty Information Center. Florida Illinois has had 23, a total high enough to help push the state toward a moratorium and eventual abolition of the death penalty.10Death Penalty Information Center. Illinois Louisiana has had 11.11Death Penalty Information Center. Louisiana Reaches Ten Years Without an Execution Texas, which has executed more people than any other state by a wide margin, also accounts for a significant share.
The clustering reflects two things at once: how often states impose death sentences, and how strong the local post-conviction resources are. Regions with active defense clinics, investigative journalists, and innocence organizations produce more exonerations because someone is looking.
Race and Wrongful Death Sentences
Black defendants make up roughly 56 percent of death row exonerees, well above their share of the general population. About 85 percent of Black death row exonerees were victims of official misconduct, compared to 70 percent of white exonerees.3National Registry of Exonerations. Race and Wrongful Convictions in the United States, 2022 Innocent Black people on death row also wait an average of about four years longer for exoneration than white people in comparable situations.
What Happens After an Exoneration
Walking off death row does not come with an automatic check or reentry plan. The legal supports vary by jurisdiction, and many exonerees leave with almost nothing.
Federal Compensation
Federal law lets someone who proves an unjust federal conviction recover up to $100,000 for each year spent on death row, and up to $50,000 per year for other wrongful convictions.12Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 2513 – Unjust Conviction and Imprisonment Those figures have not been updated since 2004.
State Compensation
Thirty-eight states and the District of Columbia have wrongful-conviction compensation statutes.13National Registry of Exonerations. Compensation Annual payouts range from roughly $50,000 to nearly $200,000 per year of incarceration depending on the state. Filing deadlines vary from a few years to a decade. The remaining states offer no statutory path.
Civil Rights Suits
When a wrongful conviction stemmed from police or prosecutor misconduct, exonerees can sue for damages under 42 U.S.C. Section 1983, which allows constitutional claims against people acting under state authority.14Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 1983 – Civil Action for Deprivation of Rights These suits have produced some of the largest wrongful-conviction settlements, but they require years of additional litigation.
Reentry
Exonerees face the same reentry obstacles as anyone leaving prison, sometimes in a worse position. Because they were not released on parole, they can miss out on transitional housing and job placement services designed for people with convictions. Social Security benefits suspended during incarceration can be restarted once the conviction is reversed and all charges are dropped.15Social Security Administration. Benefits after Incarceration: What You Need To Know