Conviction review
Convictions that were overturned, and innocence claims courts are ruling on this week. Read what the evidence was and where it broke.
James Joseph Richardson
James Joseph Richardson (December 26, 1935 – September 16, 2023) was an African-American man who was wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death in 1968 for the October 1967 mass murder of his seven children. They died after eating a poisoned breakfast containing the organic phosphate pesticide parathion. At the time of the murders, Richardson was a migrant farm worker in Arcadia, Florida living with his wife Annie…
2012 · CaliforniaOverturnedNational Registry of Exonerations
The National Registry of Exonerations is a project of the University of Michigan Law School, Michigan State University College of Law and the University of California Irvine Newkirk Center for Science and Society. The Registry was co-founded in 2012 with the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University School of Law to provide detailed information about known exonerations in the United States since…
2007 · WisconsinOverturnedSteven Avery
Steven Allan Avery (born July 9, 1962) is an American from Manitowoc County, Wisconsin who was convicted of murder in 2007. He had previously been wrongfully convicted in 1985 of sexual assault and attempted murder. After serving 18 years of a 32-year sentence (six of those years being concurrent with a kidnapping sentence), Avery was exonerated by DNA testing and released in 2003, only to be charged with murder in…
2026 · Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New YorkIn courtMatter of Gianna A.
Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York issued an opinion on November 13, 2026 that deals with an innocence claim. From the opinion: “…With respect to the alleged "new evidence" of actual innocence cited by respondent, that "evidence" existed…”
2026 · Supreme Court of FloridaIn courtThomas M. Overton v. State of Florida & Thomas M. Overton v. Secretary, Department of Corrections
Supreme Court of Florida issued an opinion on November 13, 2026 that deals with an innocence claim. From the opinion: “…is no such thing under Florida law as an “actual innocence” claim independent of newly discovered evidence…”
1984Overturned
Harlem Park Three
The Harlem Park Three were a trio of American students, Alfred Chestnut, Andrew Stewart, and Ransom Watkins, who were falsely accused of murdering ninth grader DeWitt Duckett at Harlem Park Junior High School in the Harlem Park neighborhood of Baltimore in 1983 and sentenced to life in prison. They served 36 years in prison before being exonerated in 2019. After being exonerated, the trio sued the Baltimore Police…
1963 · New YorkOverturnedGeorge Whitmore Jr.
George Whitmore Jr. (May 26, 1944 – October 8, 2012) was an African American man who was charged but later cleared of the infamous Career Girls Murders that occurred in New York City in 1963. "The Supreme Court cited Mr.
Year unknownOverturned
Laura Fair
Laura D. Fair (née Laura Ann Hunt; 1837–1919) was an American murderer, whose death sentence was overturned. Her court case is notable due to her gender and the legal case framed around her gender; it received much attention in the press, and support of Fair by the suffragettes.
2003 · PennsylvaniaOverturned
Nick Yarris
Nicholas James Yarris (born May 18, 1961) is an American writer and storyteller who spent 22 years on death row in Pennsylvania after being wrongfully convicted of rape and murder. Yarris was exonerated by DNA testing in 2003. He was released from prison in 2004 after a separate 30-year sentence he received in Florida for lesser crimes committed after he escaped from custody in 1985 was reduced to time served.
Year unknownOverturned
Anthony Charles Graves
Anthony Charles Graves (born August 29, 1965) is the 138th exonerated death row inmate in America. With no record of violence, he was arrested at 26 years old, wrongfully convicted, and incarcerated for 18 years before finally being exonerated and released. He was awarded $1.4 million for the time he spent imprisoned, and the prosecutor who put him in prison, Charles Sebesta, was ultimately disbarred for concealing…
1980OverturnedJoyce Ann Brown
Joyce Ann Brown (February 12, 1947 – June 13, 2015) was wrongfully convicted of robbery and murder in 1980 and spent almost a decade in prison before her conviction was overturned. Her case was notable because it was one of the first convictions that was overturned after extensive media exposure. Her case was featured on the television show 60 Minutes, and investigated by the print news media.
2000OverturnedThe Exonerated
The Exonerated is a 2000 play by Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen that debuted Off-Broadway in October 2000 at 45 Bleecker Theater and ran for over 600 performances. It won numerous awards including the Lucille Lortel Award for Unique Theatrical Experience, the Drama Desk Award for Unique Theatrical Experience, and the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Off-Broadway Play. It was adapted into a 2005 film by the…
2001 · MissouriOverturned
Ryan W. Ferguson
Ryan W. Ferguson (born October 19, 1984) is an American man who spent nearly 10 years in prison after being wrongfully convicted of a 2001 murder in his hometown of Columbia, Missouri. At the time of the murder, Ferguson was a 17-year-old high-school student. Kent Heitholt was found beaten and strangled shortly after 2:00 a.m.
1872 · KansasOverturned
William Jackson Marion
William Jackson "Jack" Marion (May 13, 1849 – March 25, 1887) was an American man who was convicted of the 1872 murder of John Cameron, a Kansas native and a friend. Marion and Cameron were railroad workers who embarked on a trip to Kansas to work on the railroad in 1872. During the trip, Cameron went missing, spurring an investigation into his whereabouts.
1987 · TexasOverturned
Michael Morton
Michael Wayne Morton (born August 12, 1954) is an American who was wrongfully convicted in 1987 in a Williamson County, Texas court of the 1986 murder of his wife Christine Morton. He spent nearly 25 years in prison before he was exonerated by DNA evidence which supported his claim of innocence and pointed to the crime being committed by another individual. Morton was released from prison on October 4, 2011, and…
1983OverturnedDewey Bozella
Dewey Bozella (born 1959) is a former professional boxer who is known for being wrongfully imprisoned. Convicted in 1983 for the murder of an elderly woman, Bozella served 26 years in prison before his conviction was overturned in 2009 after being proved innocent.
1974 · FloridaOverturnedDelbert Tibbs
Delbert Lee Tibbs (June 19, 1939 – November 23, 2013) was an American man who was wrongfully convicted of murder and rape in 1974 in Florida and sentenced to death. Later exonerated, Tibbs became a writer and anti-death penalty activist.
1973 · LouisianaOverturned
Robert Hillary King
Robert Hillary King (born May 30, 1942), formerly Robert King Wilkerson, is an American known as one of the Angola Three prisoners who were held at Louisiana State Penitentiary (also called "Angola") in solitary confinement for decades after being convicted in 1973 of prison murders. Initially held at Angola after being convicted of armed robbery, King served a total of 32 years there, 29 of them in solitary. His…
1936 · ColoradoOverturned
Joe Arridy
Joseph Arridy (; April 29, 1915 – January 6, 1939) was an American man who was falsely convicted and wrongfully executed for the 1936 rape and murder of Dorothy Drain, a 15-year-old girl in Pueblo, Colorado. He was manipulated by the police to extort a false confession from him due to his mental incapacities. Arridy was intellectually disabled and was 23 years old when he was executed on January 6, 1939, after…
1976 · PennsylvaniaOverturnedRay Krone
Ray Krone (born January 19, 1957) is an American who was wrongfully convicted of murder. He was the 100th inmate exonerated from death row since the death penalty in the United States was reinstated in 1976. Krone was born and raised in Dover Township, York County, Pennsylvania and graduated from Dover Area High School in 1974.
2013 · TexasOverturnedOak Hill satanic ritual abuse trial
The Oak Hill satanic ritual abuse trial occurred in Oak Hill, Austin, Texas, in 1991 when Fran Keller and her husband Dan, proprietors of a small day care, were accused of repeatedly and sadistically abusing several children. The Kellers were convicted of multiple charges and sentenced to 48 years in prison, but were freed in 2013 based on newly revealed information about misconduct by the prosecution and other…
1896 · NevadaOverturned
Diamondfield Jack
Jackson Lee "Diamondfield Jack" Davis (12 August 1863 – 2 January 1949) was pardoned for the 1896 Deep Creek Murders in Idaho and would later strike it rich in Nevada, where he established several mining towns, one named after his nickname "Diamondfield".
1985 · TexasOverturnedTim Cole
Timothy Brian Cole (July 1, 1960 – December 2, 1999) was an American military veteran and a Texas Tech University student wrongfully convicted of raping a fellow student in 1985. Cole attended two years of college followed by two years of service in the U.S. Army. After his Army service, he returned to college at Texas Tech in Lubbock.
1969 · New YorkOverturnedDhoruba bin Wahad
Dhoruba al-Mujahid bin Wahad (born Richard Earl Moore on June 30, 1944) is an American political activist and author, former leader of the New York Black Panther Party, and member of the Black Liberation Army. He was one of the Panther 21 defendants charged in 1969 with conspiracy to attack New York City police stations. After a lengthy trial, the Panther 21 were exonerated.