Entries tagged with “National Registry of Exonerations”
Issues
Mar 25, 2024
National Registry of Exonerations’ Annual Report Finds Majority of Exonerees are People of Color and Official Misconduct is the Main Cause of Wrongful Convictions
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…
Issues
Sep 30, 2022
Report: Black People 7.5 Times More Likely to Be Wrongfully Convicted of Murder than Whites, Risk Even Greater if Victim was White
Black people are about 7½ times more likely to be wrongfully convicted of murder in the U.S. than are whites, and about 80% more likely to be innocent than others convicted of murder, according to a new report by the National Registry of Exonerations. The already disproportionate risk of wrongful conviction, the Registry found, was even worse if the murder victim in a case was white. The report, Race and Wrongful Convictions in the United States 2022, reviewed the cases of 3,200 innocent…
Issues
Aug 26, 2022
DPIC Analysis: At Least a Dozen Exonerations in 2021 Involved the Wrongful Threat or Pursuit of the Death Penalty
A Death Penalty Information Center review of data from the National Registry of Exonerations has found that the pursuit or threatened use of the death penalty by police or prosecutors in nine different states led to the wrongful murder convictions of at least twelve innocent people who were exonerated in 2021. DPIC’s analysis of the National Registry’s 2021 Annual Report on Exonerations found that prosecutors in California, Georgia, Illinois, Mississippi, and New York wrongfully sought the…
Issues
Mar 18, 2021
New York Judge Finds Queens Prosecutor Lied to Convict Three Men Wrongfully Imprisoned in 1990s Death-Penalty Case
A New York City judge has released three men from prison after 24 years imprisonment for murder, finding that a high-ranking prosecutor in the Queens County District Attorney’s office deliberately concealed exculpatory evidence while pursuing the death penalty against a teenage defendant. On March 5, 2021, Justice Joseph Zayas, the Administrative Judge of the Queens County Supreme Court, granted a joint request by the Queens County District Attorney’s Conviction Integrity Unit and lawyers for…
Issues
Oct 23, 2020
DPIC Analysis: Use or Threat of Death Penalty Implicated in 19 Exoneration Cases in 2019
Prosecutors or police used or threatened to use the death penalty as a coercive tool that led to or extended the wrongful convictions of at least nineteen people who were exonerated in 2019, a Death Penalty Information Center analysis of data from the National Registry of Exonerations has revealed. Nearly 95% of those cases also involved some other form of major misconduct, the DPIC analysis found. DPIC’s special report, Use or Threat of Death Penalty Implicated in 19 Exoneration Cases in…
Issues
Oct 23, 2020
DPIC Analysis: Use or Threat of Death Penalty Implicated in 19 Exoneration Cases in 2019
The use or threat of the death penalty was a factor in more than 13% of exonerations across the United States in 2019 and nearly 95% of those cases involved some form of major misconduct, a Death Penalty Information Center analysis of data from the National Registry of Exonerations has revealed. The DPIC review found that the death penalty played a role in at least 19 of the 143 exonerations in 2019 (13.3%) listed in the Registry’s annual exonerations report, resulting in nearly 500 years lost…
Issues
Oct 08, 2020
Report Finds Rampant Government Misconduct in Death-Row Exonerations, Especially in Cases with Black Defendants
A new report by the National Registry of Exonerations has found that police or prosecutorial misconduct is rampant in death-row exoneration cases and occurs even more frequently when the wrongfully death-sentenced exoneree is Black. The report, Government Misconduct and Convicting the Innocent, released September 15, 2020, examined the factors contributing to 2,400 exonerations since 1989. It found that misconduct was present in more than half of all exonerations and nearly three-quarters of…
Issues
Apr 03, 2020
2019 Exoneration Report: Official Misconduct and Perjury Remain Leading Causes of Wrongful Homicide Convictions
Official misconduct and perjury or false accusation continue to be the main reasons innocent men and women are wrongfully convicted in America, according to the 2019 annual report by the National Registry of Exonerations. That misconduct, the report indicates, is most prevalent in cases involving the most serious criminal charges. The registry reported on March 31, 2020 that 143 men and women were exonerated in 2019 following wrongful convictions across the United States. More than half (76)…
Issues
Apr 23, 2019
Wrongful Use or Threat of Capital Prosecutions Implicated in Five Exonerations in 2018
At least five people were exonerated in 2018 after having been wrongfully convicted in cases that involved the misuse or threatened use of the death penalty, a DPIC analysis of data accompanying a new report by the National Registry of Exonerations has shown. The National Registry’s annual report on wrongful convictions, Exonerations in 2018, recorded a record 151 new exonerations across the United States in 2018, including 68 exonerations resulting from wrongful homicide convictions. Two of…
Apr 09, 2019
DPIC ANALYSIS: 2018 Exoneration Report Shows Official Misconduct and Perjury Remain Leading Causes of Wrongful Homicide Convictions
A record 151 men and women were exonerated across the United States in 2018, according to the National Registry of Exonerations’ 2018 annual report on wrongful convictions. The report, Exonerations in 2018, included 68 exonerations resulting from wrongful homicide convictions. A DPIC analysis of data accompanying the report shows that at least five people were exonerated in 2018 after having been wrongfully convicted in cases that involved the misuse or threatened use of the death penalty…
Issues
Mar 08, 2017
Reports Find Record Number of Exonerations in 2016, Blacks More Likely to be Wrongfully Convicted
Companion reports released on March 7 by the National Registry of Exonerations found record numbers of exonerations and wrongful convictions involving official misconduct in 2016, and striking evidence of racial bias both in the wrongful convictions themselves and in the time it took the judicial process to exonerate the wrongfully incarcerated. The Registry’s report, Exonerations in 2016, found a record 166 exonerations in 2016, with 54 defendants exonerated of homicide. A DPIC review of the…
Issues
Feb 03, 2016
National Registry of Exonerations Reports Record 58 Homicide Exonerations in 2015, Including 5 from Death Row
A report released on February 3 by the National Registry of Exonerations (NRE) reported that a record 149 defendants were exonerated in 2015, including 58 convicted of homicide, also a record for exonerations in a single year. Overall, 39% of last year’s exonerations were in homicide cases. Using slightly different criteria than DPIC’s exoneration list, the NRE reported five exonerations of defendants who had been sentenced to death. The NRE report also reported a number of cases in which…