---
title: 'LAW REVIEWS: Convicting the Innocent'
description: 'A new article in the Annual Review of Law and Social Science entitled “Convicting the Innocent” by Prof. Samuel Gross of the Universiry of Michigan Law…'
canonical: 'https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/law-reviews-convicting-the-innocent'
section: news
date: '2009-01-26T21:43:20-05:00'
updated: '2025-03-14T14:25:54-04:00'
source: 'Death Penalty Information Center'
---

A new article in the **Annual Review of Law and Social Science** entitled “Convicting the Innocent” by **Prof. Samuel Gross** of the Universiry of Michigan Law School explores the rate of false convictions among death-sentenced inmates and examines the demographical and procedural predictors of such errors. Prof. Gross noted that earlier research showed the exoneration rate to be 2.3% for inmates who had been on death row at least 15 years and a similar rate for those who had been on death row for at least 20 years. He further noted, “This figure–2.3%--is the actual proportion of exonerations for death sentences imposed in the United States between 1973 and 1989.” He concludes that this error rate is probably a low estimate of the true rate of mistaken convictions: “The proportion of capital exonerations is almost certainly an underestimate of the true rate of false capital convictions.”

(Samuel R. Gross, “Convicting the Innocent,” 4 Annual Review of Law and Social Science 173 (2008). See [**Innocence**](/innocence-and-death-penalty?did=412&scid=6) and [**Law Reviews**](/law-review-journal-articles-death-penalty?did=131&scid=21).