Entries tagged with “Kirk Bloodsworth”

Issues

Aug 01, 2024

Missouri Supreme Court Blocks Attorney General’s Efforts to Prevent Innocence Hearing for Marcellus Williams

On July 26, 2024, the Missouri Supreme Court denied Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s request to block an evi­den­tiary hear­ing sched­uled for August 21st, 2024, where the St. Louis County Circuit Court is set to hear evi­dence of Marcellus Williams’ (pic­tured) inno­cence. The cir­cuit court set the August 21st hear­ing in response to a motion to vacate Mr. Williams’ con­vic­tion and death sen­tence filed by Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell in January 2024. In his motion, DA Bell wrote that…

Issues

Jul 25, 2023

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…

Issues

Jul 21, 2023

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, 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…

Issues

Jun 28, 2023

First Death Row Exoneration Involving DNA Evidence Happened 30 Years Ago

June 28, 2023 marks the 30th anniver­sary of the exon­er­a­tion of Kirk Bloodsworth (pic­tured), the first per­son exon­er­at­ed from death row with DNA evi­dence. In the three decades since he was exon­er­at­ed from Maryland’s death row, Mr. Bloodsworth has been a vocal advo­cate for crim­i­nal jus­tice reform. He played an essen­tial role in end­ing the death penal­ty in Maryland in 2013 and served as direc­tor of Witness to Innocence, an orga­ni­za­tion of death…

Issues

Feb 19, 2021

National Geographic Publishes Feature Story on Innocence and the Death Penalty

For the first time in its his­to­ry, National Geographic mag­a­zine has tack­led the sub­ject of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. Sentenced to death, but inno­cent, a fea­ture sto­ry in the March 2021 issue of the mag­a­zine, chron­i­cles the sto­ries of fif­teen death-row exonerees and illu­mi­nates the per­va­sive issue of inno­cence and the death penal­ty in the United States. The arti­cle, released on the same day as the Death Penalty Information Center’s new…

Issues

Feb 18, 2021

DPIC Adds Eleven Cases to Innocence List, Bringing National Death-Row Exoneration Total to 185

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 for every 8.3 peo­ple who have been put to death in the U.S. since exe­cu­tions resumed in the 1970s, one per­son who had been wrong­ful­ly con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death has been exon­er­at­ed. Wrongful capital convictions…

Issues

Jan 06, 2021

Witness to Innocence Releases #ImLivingProof Video Series

Witness to Innocence, the nation­al orga­ni­za­tion of U.S. death-row exonerees, has released a series of short videos under the tag “#ImLivingProof,” fea­tur­ing the sto­ries of men and women who had been wrong­ful­ly con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death. The series, pro­duced by film­mak­er Martin Schoeller with fund­ing from the Art for Justice Fund, attempts to per­son­al­ize the dan­gers of the death penal­ty by show­ing the pub­lic liv­ing proof that innocent people…