Larry Roberts Becomes the 200^th Person Exonerated from Death Row

Larry Roberts, the 200^th exoneree, was wrong­ful­ly con­vict­ed in 1983 for the mur­der of a fel­low pris­on­er and prison guard at the California Medical Center in Vacaville, California. The only wit­ness­es to these stab­bings were fel­low pris­on­ers who tes­ti­fied against Mr. Roberts; he was sen­tenced to death for both killings. Years lat­er, the California Supreme Court over­turned Mr. Roberts’ con­vic­tion for the death of the prison guard but left his death sen­tence in place. After 41 years, the California Attorney General’s Office has now agreed with a U.S. dis­trict court judge who grant­ed Mr. Roberts a new tri­al and has said it will not retry him. Mr. Roberts’ exon­er­a­tion is a pow­er­ful reminder of the fal­li­bil­i­ty of the death penal­ty, and one more rea­son 50% of the American pub­lic no longer believes their gov­ern­ment can fair­ly use the death penalty.

See the press release from Witness to Innocence here.

See the Death Penalty Information Center’s press release here.

See a list of all 200 exonerees and details about their cas­es here.

See our Innocence Database here.