New DPIC Podcast: Kirk Bloodsworth, Thirty Years After His Exoneration

In the July 2023 episode of Discussions with DPIC, Anne Holsinger, Managing Director of DPIC, speaks with Kirk Bloodsworth (pic­tured), the first per­son exon­er­at­ed from death row by DNA evi­dence. Mr. Bloodsworth reflects on the thir­ty years since his exon­er­a­tion and dis­cuss­es the expe­ri­ence of being wrong­ful­ly con­vict­ed. He also describes the work he and oth­er exonerees have done, and how the issue of inno­cence has affect­ed leg­is­la­tion on the death penalty.

Though DNA test­ing has become more wide­spread in the three decades since Mr. Bloodsworth’s exon­er­a­tion, he explains that more needs to be done to address wrong­ful con­vic­tions. Referencing the 192 peo­ple exon­er­at­ed from death row, he says, ​“if there was a bunch of planes or a plane that 192 peo­ple were killed, we would have the great­est pan­el of inves­ti­ga­tions on this, and we haven’t had it.” He also describes how dif­fi­cult it can be to over­turn a wrong­ful con­vic­tion, in part because of the dehu­man­iza­tion that comes with being con­vict­ed of a crime: ​“once they slam the door on you as a human being, you don’t have much of a choice for any type of study.” ​“If you’d have actu­al claims of inno­cence, you have to jump through all these prover­bial hoops in life, and you shouldn’t have to do that,” he says.

Mr. Bloodsworth describes how his case influ­enced Maryland leg­is­la­tors to abol­ish the death penal­ty, not­ing that his name was men­tioned over 60 times dur­ing the leg­isla­tive debate, but notes that inno­cence is just one of many prob­lems with cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. ​“It costs way more, three times as much as any oth­er tri­al and hon­est­ly, you don’t get it all the time any­way,” he explains. He also points to the eco­nom­ic dis­par­i­ties in death sen­tences, say­ing sim­ply, ​“the rich don’t get it and the poor do.”

He con­cludes by dis­cussing the impor­tant work of Witness to Innocence, an orga­ni­za­tion of death row exonerees who share their sto­ries around the world. He asks those who encounter exonerees to make a human con­nec­tion with them: ​“if you see the exon­er­at­ed death row sur­vivor… or an exoneree peri­od, shake their hand and tell them welcome home.”