Policy Issues
Innocence
The death penalty carries the inherent risk of executing an innocent person. Since 1973, at least 190 people who had been wrongly convicted and sentenced to death in the U.S. have been exonerated.
Policy Issues
The death penalty carries the inherent risk of executing an innocent person. Since 1973, at least 190 people who had been wrongly convicted and sentenced to death in the U.S. have been exonerated.
A Death Penalty Information Center database of every death-row exoneration since 1972.
The Most Common Causes of Wrongful Death Penalty Convictions: Official Misconduct and Perjury or False Accusation
Given the fallibility of human judgment, there has always been the danger that an execution could result in the killing of an innocent person. Nevertheless, when the U.S. Supreme Court held the administration of the death penalty to be unconstitutional in 1972, there was barely any mention of the issue of innocence in the nine opinions issued. Although mistakes were surely made in the past, the assumption prevailed that such cases were few and far between. Almost everyone on death row was surely guilty.
However, as federal courts began to more thoroughly review whether state criminal defendants were afforded their guaranteed rights to due process, errors and official misconduct began to regularly appear, requiring retrials. When defendants were now afforded more experienced counsel, with fairly selected juries, and were granted access to scientific testing, some were acquitted and released. Since 1973, 192 former death-row prisoners have been exonerated of all charges related to the wrongful convictions that had put them on death row.
It is now clear that innocent defendants will be convicted and sentenced to death with some regularity as long as the death penalty exists. It is unlikely that the appeals process—which is mainly focused on legal errors and not on factual determinations—will catch all the mistakes. Reforms have been begrudgingly implemented, increasing both the costs and the time that the death penalty consumes, but have not been sufficient to overcome human error. The popularity and use of capital punishment have rapidly declined as the innocence issue has gained attention. The remaining question is how many innocent lives are worth sacrificing to preserve this punishment.
DPIC has led the way in highlighting the issue of innocence. Its list of exonerated individuals is presented in a searchable database, with links to more complete descriptions of each case. DPIC has issued a series of reports on this issue, collecting the latest information on why so many mistakes occur. It also follows the related questions of whether innocent individuals have already been executed and whether some defendants are in fact innocent, despite not being completely exonerated in the eyes of the law.
Feb 18, 2021
New research by the Death Penalty Information Center has found 11 previously unrecorded death-row exonerations, bringing the total number of people exonerated after being wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death to 185. The data now show that f…
Read MoreInnocence
May 26, 2023
“[W]e have come over time to see the flaws in our nation’s justice system and to view the state’s death penalty laws in particular as legally and morally troubling,” wrote two former governors of Alabama in an op-ed for the W…
Innocence
May 25, 2023
Former federal Oklahoma prosecutors Patrick Ryan and Daniel Webber co-authored an editorial in The Oklahoman on May 17, 2023 expressing serious concerns about Richard Glossip’s conviction and death sentence. The writers noted tha…
Innocence
May 18, 2023
On May 11, attorneys for Robert Roberson, a death-sentenced prisoner in Texas, filed a petition for certiorari to the Supreme Court asking it to reverse the decision of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA). Mr. Roberson’s convicti…
Innocence
May 12, 2023
Occasionally, DPIC discovers an older case involving an exoneration from death row and adds that case to the DPIC Innocence List. Joe Cota Morales was convicted and sentenced to death in Arizona in 1976 and was exonerated in 1981. He has now been …
Capital Case Development
May 05, 2023
(ORDER LIST: 598 U.S.) FRIDAY, MAY 5, 2023 ORDER IN PENDING CASE 22A941 GLOSSIP, RICHARD E. V. OKLAHOMA The application for stay of execution of sentence of death presented to Justice Kavanaugh and by him referred to the Court is granted pending t…
Capital Case Development
Apr 26, 2023
On April 26, the Oklahoma Board of Pardons and Paroles declined to recommend clemency for death-row prisoner Richard Glossip (pictured), who is scheduled to be executed on May 18, 2023. The board’s 2 – 2 vote constituted a denial of clemency since t…
Capital Case Development
Apr 21, 2023
The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals ruled against Richard Glossip (pictured) on April 20, 2023, despite a motion …
Innocence
Apr 20, 2023
On April 19, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled (6 – 3) in Reed v. Goertz that a Texas death row prisoner could continue his pursuit of DNA testing that a lower court had blocked. The Court held that Rodney Reed’s (pictured) civil rights…
Innocence
Apr 19, 2023
On April 17, 2023, lawyers for Toforest Johnson (pictured, center), who has spent 25 years on Alabama’s death row, filed a petition for a writ of certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court requesting a new trial. The petition was buttressed by support f…
Innocence
Apr 07, 2023
On April 6, 2023, Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond asked the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals to vacate Richard Glossip’s conviction and death sentence and to remand the case to the District Court for further proceedings. He cited the …