June 28, 2023 marks the 30th anniver­sary of the exon­er­a­tion of Kirk Bloodsworth (pic­tured), the first per­son exon­er­at­ed from death row with DNA evi­dence. In the three decades since he was exon­er­at­ed from Maryland’s death row, Mr. Bloodsworth has been a vocal advo­cate for crim­i­nal jus­tice reform. He played an essen­tial role in end­ing the death penal­ty in Maryland in 2013 and served as direc­tor of Witness to Innocence, an orga­ni­za­tion of death row exonerees.

Since Mr. Bloodsworth’s exon­er­a­tion, 28 addi­tion­al death row pris­on­ers have been exon­er­at­ed on the basis of DNA evi­dence. A fed­er­al law called the Innocence Protection Act of 2004 cre­at­ed the Kirk Bloodsworth Post-Conviction DNA Testing Grant Program intend­ed to help states pay for post-con­vic­tion DNA test­ing, but pris­on­ers still face sig­nif­i­cant pro­ce­dur­al hur­dles, includ­ing resis­tance from pros­e­cu­tors and judges, to obtain­ing post-con­vic­tion DNA testing.

Mr. Bloodsworth was con­vict­ed in 1984 of the rape and mur­der of 9‑year-old Dawn Hamilton. He was grant­ed a new tri­al because of pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct, but was wrong­ful­ly con­vict­ed a sec­ond time and sen­tenced to life in prison. DNA test­ing con­duct­ed in 1993 exclud­ed him as the per­pe­tra­tor and iden­ti­fied anoth­er man, who was serv­ing a 45-year sen­tence for a sim­i­lar attack that occurred three weeks after Mr. Bloodsworth was arrest­ed. The actu­al per­pe­tra­tor was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to life in prison in 2004.

Mr. Bloodsworth is the sub­ject of the film ​“Bloodsworth: An Innocent Man,” which was released in 2015.

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