This week, The National Registry of Exonerations pub­lished its annu­al report on exon­er­a­tions that took place in 2023. According to the report, ​“The Registry record­ed 153 exon­er­a­tions last year, and near­ly 84% (127/​153) were peo­ple of col­or. Nearly 61 per­cent of the exonerees (93/​153) were Black,” while the most fre­quent fac­tor in their wrong­ful con­vic­tion was offi­cial mis­con­duct. ​“Seventy-five homi­cide cas­es — 85% of homi­cide exon­er­a­tions in 2023 — were marred by offi­cial mis­con­duct.” Three out of four death row exonerees were peo­ple of col­or, and in all instances, offi­cial mis­con­duct was the main factor.

Official mis­con­duct, which can encom­pass fal­si­fy­ing evi­dence, coerc­ing wit­ness­es, and with­hold­ing excul­pa­to­ry infor­ma­tion — pos­es var­i­ous chal­lenges to the crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem, most impor­tant­ly in the way it affects pub­lic con­fi­dence in the integri­ty of its jus­tice sys­tem and elect­ed offi­cials. Inadequate legal defense, mis­tak­en wit­ness iden­ti­fi­ca­tion, and per­jury or false accu­sa­tion are also caus­es of wrongful conviction. 

Each exon­er­a­tion rep­re­sents a human being who lost years and some­times decades of their lives behind bars while the guilty par­ty remained free to pos­si­bly com­mit oth­er crimes. Many states now have statutes that pro­vide some rec­om­pense; since 1989, near­ly $4 bil­lion in com­pen­sa­tion has been paid to wrong­ful­ly con­vict­ed per­sons. The amount has almost dou­bled since 2019. The authors note that there are dis­par­i­ties in com­pen­sa­tion that will prompt future research. ​“Why […] are pay­ments so much greater in New York than in oth­er states — $6 mil­lion on aver­age for all exonerees, com­pared to $1.8 mil­lion in Illinois and $1.2 mil­lion in Texas? And why did 79% of all exonerees receive some com­pen­sa­tion in Illinois, but only 33% in Texas?” 

In 2023, the four-death row exonerees were John Huffington, Jesse Johnson, Glynn Simmons, and Noel Montalvo. The num­ber of years between con­vic­tion and exon­er­a­tion was 48 for Mr. Glynn Simmons (the longest num­ber of years before an exon­er­a­tion in U.S. his­to­ry), 42 for Mr. Huffington, 20 for Mr. Montalvo, and 19 for Mr. Johnson. The report notes that for all exonerees, ​“People exon­er­at­ed in 2023 lost 2,230 years col­lec­tive­ly for crimes they did not com­mit. That is an aver­age of 14.6 years per exoneree for wrongful imprisonment.”

Among the 153 exon­er­a­tions (total) that took place with­in 32 states (there were no fed­er­al exon­er­a­tions), the largest num­ber occurred in Illinois (24), fol­lowed by Texas (22), New York (21), and Pennsylvania (16).

The National Registry of Exonerations is a con­sor­tium of three uni­ver­si­ties: the University of Michigan Law School, Michigan State University College of Law, and the University of California Irvine Newkirk Center for Science and Society.

You can access the report here.

DPIC also main­tains a com­pre­hen­sive data­base and oth­er resources on death penal­ty exon­er­a­tions and innocence cases.

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Sources

2023 Annual Report, The National Registry of Exonerations — Exoneration Registry.