The National
Registry of
Exonerations
Explore data and read stories about exonerations in the United States.
Exonerations by State
Newly Published Exonerations
At around midnight on October 21, 2017, firefighters and police in East Cleveland, Ohio, responded to a call about a van on fire. Inside the vehicle, they found a badly burned body with no…
Just before 11:30 p.m. on December 18, 1993, 17-year-old Albert Gonzalez was shot at least three times near the driveway of his house in the East Los Angeles section of Los Angeles County, California…
On July 22, 2017, a white man walked out of a Walmart store on Bandera Road in San Antonio, Texas without paying for a backpack that he had filled with merchandise and stolen from the store. David…
Around 1:30 a.m. on November 22, 2009, a shooting took place at Barra Vieja, a Mexican restaurant and tavern in Denver, Colorado that was also known as the Merry Go Round bar. C.D. was there,…
Shortly after 3 p.m. on Saturday, June 22, 1991, 18-year-old Vera Brown was shot four times outside 2910 South Dearborn Street in Chicago, Illinois. Witnesses said that a lone gunman shot her in the…
At 9:36 p.m. on June 14, 2013, shots were reported being fired near a basketball court in the center of Lumberton, North Carolina.Officers with the city’s police department responded to the call and…
On January 28, 2006, sometime between 9 and 10 p.m., 22-year-old Leonard Green was shot in the foot while sitting in a car in Kankakee, Illinois. Green told police that he and Marquese Sherman were…
At about 9:30 p.m. on November 10, 2001, 23-year-old Kimberly Lambert got into her two-door Ford Explorer after leaving work at a Pier 1 Imports store in Memphis, Tennessee. She planned to meet…
EVERY STORY COUNTS.
The Registry is a living archive of injustice. We collect, analyze, and publish comprehensive information on all known exonerations of criminal defendants in the United States.
We study the frequency and distribution of exonerations, and the causes, costs, and consequences of wrongful convictions. We make our data, research, and stories broadly accessible. Our goal is to be a resource for those who want to improve the criminal legal system and make it more accountable.
The Registry is a project of the Michigan State University College of Law, the Newkirk Center for Science & Society at the University of California—Irvine, and the University of Michigan Law School.
Dynamic Graphs
Reports
In the Press
ABA Journal"Even a wrongful misdemeanor conviction can change someone’s life forever." (10/1/24)
The Associated PressIn many states, compensation for the wrongfully convicted is a hard sell.
The Hill"Marcellus Williams’s execution was a tragedy — hopefully the last of its kind." (9/27/24)