Conviction review
Convictions that were overturned, and innocence claims courts are ruling on this week. Read what the evidence was and where it broke.
Marietta Seven
The Marietta Seven were defendants on a murder charge who were subsequently exonerated, having been convicted of the murder of Warren and Rosina Matthews in May 1971 in Marietta, Georgia.
1975 · OklahomaOverturned
Glynn Simmons
Glynn Ray Simmons (1953 – October 2026) was an American man who was wrongfully convicted in the state of Oklahoma in 1975 of the 1974 murder of Carolyn Sue Rogers. After having been exonerated, he was released from prison in 2023 at the age of 70 after having been imprisoned for 48 years. His imprisonment after wrongful conviction is believed to be the longest in U.S. history.
2017 · CaliforniaOverturnedCraig Coley
Craig Richard Coley (born June 7, 1947 in Los Angeles County, California) is an American man who was wrongfully convicted of a double murder in Simi Valley, California, and spent 39 years in prison. He was pardoned by the governor of California in 2017 because DNA testing, not available at his original trial, did not support his conviction.
1983OverturnedMaurice Hastings
Maurice Hastings (born 1953) is an American former prisoner who was wrongfully convicted for the rape and murder of Roberta Wydermyer in 1983. He was released after being incarcerated for 38 years because DNA evidence linked to the murder implicated another man. Hastings requested the DNA test in the year 2000, but this was refused and was not carried out until 2021.
Year unknown · FloridaOverturnedHubert Nathan Myers and Clifford Williams
Hubert Nathan Myers and Clifford Williams are two African American men who were served 42 years in prison after being wrongfully convicted of first degree murder and attempted murder due to eyewitness misidentification, ineffective assistance of counsel and official misconduct. They are the first exonerees freed based on an investigation by a Conviction Integrity Unit in Florida.
1985 · North CarolinaOverturned
Eastburn family murders
In May 1985, Kathryn Eastburn and her daughters, Kara and Erin, were murdered in Fayetteville, North Carolina. In 1986, United States Army Sergeant Timothy Hennis was tried and convicted for the three murders. In 1988, Hennis's conviction was overturned on appeal, and he was acquitted the following year.
1991OverturnedJohn Bunn
John Bunn (born 1976) is an African American man wrongfully convicted of a murder committed in 1991, when he was 14. Bunn spent over 16 years in prison and nearly 12 on parole before he was exonerated in 2018. After his release, Bunn founded a nonprofit that aims to educate incarcerated youth and provide access to books to promote literacy.
Year unknown · AlabamaOverturnedCharles Lee Bufford
Charles Lee Bufford (born 1954) is an African-American man who was initially convicted of robbing and murdering William Roland Cooper, Jr., a probate judge in Wilcox County, Alabama, but was later retried and found not guilty. He had been sentenced to death, but his murder conviction was overturned when part of the death penalty law in Alabama was ruled unconstitutional. He was retried, but was acquitted despite his…
1989OverturnedKorey Wise
Korey Wise (born Kharey Wise; July 26, 1972) is an American activist who travels across the United States advocating for criminal justice reform. He shares his experience of being wrongfully convicted in the Central Park jogger case (along with Raymond Santana Jr., Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray, and Yusef Salaam) for the attack on Trisha Meili, a 28-year-old white woman jogging in Central Park, as well as attacks…
Year unknown · WisconsinOverturned
Robert Lee Stinson case
Robert Lee Stinson is an innocent Wisconsin man who was charged with the rape and murder of a 63-year-old woman, Ione Cychosz. Cychosz’ body was discovered in a vacant lot close to Stinson's backyard. Bite marks that were left on the body were analyzed by Lowell T. Johnson, a forensic dentist, who advised that the bites were left by someone missing their front tooth.
1988 · PennsylvaniaOverturnedWalter Ogrod case
Walter Ogrod is an American man who was convicted and sentenced to death for the July 12, 1988, sexual assault and murder of four-year-old Barbara Jean Horn in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. According to police, Ogrod confessed to Horn's murder four years after it occurred, but in 2020 the "confession" was recognized to be false. On June 5 of that year, Ogrod's conviction was vacated by the Philadelphia Court of Common…
1987 · MissouriOverturnedJohnny Lee Wilson case
The Johnny Lee Wilson case refers to the murder of 79-year-old Pauline Martz of Aurora, Missouri in 1986 that resulted in the wrongful imprisonment of a 20-year-old man named Johnny Lee Wilson. He had confessed to the murder days after it occurred. As a result of a guilty plea, Wilson did not receive a trial by a jury, and was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole in 1987.
1989OverturnedPatricia Stallings
Patricia Stallings (born 1964 or 1965) is an American woman who was wrongfully convicted of murder after the death of her son Ryan on September 7, 1989. Because testing seemed to indicate an elevated level of ethylene glycol in Ryan's blood, authorities suspected antifreeze poisoning, and arrested Stallings the next day. She was convicted of murder in early 1991, and sentenced to life in prison.
2016OverturnedMark Maxson
Mark Maxson is a formerly imprisoned convict, who was falsely accused and convicted of the murder of Lindsay Murdock, a six-year-old boy, and later exonerated by DNA evidence. Following the murder in August 1993, Maxson spent over two decades in prison before being released in September 2016.
1978 · IllinoisOverturnedThe Ford Heights Four
The Ford Heights Four (Verneal Jimerson, Dennis Williams, Kenneth Adams, and Willie Rainge) were formerly imprisoned convicts, who were falsely accused and convicted of the double murder of Lawrence Lionberg and Carol Schmal in Ford Heights, Illinois, and later exonerated. Jimerson and Williams were sentenced to death, Adams to 75 years in prison and Rainge to life. Following the murder in 1978, the four spent…
1992 · LouisianaOverturnedWrongful conviction of Robert Jones
Robert Jones (born January 26, 1973) is an American man who was wrongfully convicted for rape and manslaughter, following the murder of British tourist Julie Stott in New Orleans in 1992. He served 23 years of a life sentence before being released from Louisiana State Penitentiary after his conviction was overturned by the Louisiana Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal. After the Louisiana Supreme Court dismissed the…
1982 · PennsylvaniaOverturnedLewis Fogle
Lewis "Jim" Fogle is an American man who was wrongly convicted in 1982 for the murder of a 15-year-old girl. Fogle's conviction was vacated on DNA evidence in 2015, after he was forced to spend 34 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. In July 1975, 15-year-old Deann Katherine "Kathy" Long, of Cherry Tree, Indiana County, Pennsylvania, was raped and murdered by shooting of a firearm, in the head.
1990OverturnedLathierial Boyd
Lathierial Boyd is an African-American man from Chicago who was wrongfully convicted of murder in 1990 and served 23 years in prison. His appeals were turned down. An investigation by WGN-TV television in 2001 helped document new evidence in his case.
1976 · North CarolinaOverturnedJoseph Sledge
Joseph Sledge Jr. (1942 – December, 1, 2020) was an American man who was wrongly convicted of the 1976 murders of 74-year-old Josephine Davis and 57-year-old Aileen Davis, for which he was imprisoned for over 36 years before being exonerated by new DNA evidence. His case represents the longest duration of incarceration for a case that has been overturned by DNA evidence, and he was the longest-serving inmate to have…
1968OverturnedJoe Salvati
Joe Salvati, wrongfully convicted of a mob-related murder, was ultimately cleared by evidence found by Boston journalist Dan Rea. Sentenced to life in May 1968, he was released in 1997. As a result, the House Committee on Government Reform investigated whether or not the Government withheld evidence.
2008 · New YorkOverturnedAdrian P. Thomas
Adrian P. Thomas was a father of seven children living in Troy, New York, when, in September 2008, his four-month-old son died. A preliminary medical examination indicated that the infant died from head trauma. The police interrogated Thomas for nearly 10 hours during which he confessed to throwing his son on the bed three times.
1989 · NebraskaOverturnedBeatrice Six
The Beatrice Six are Joseph White, Thomas Winslow, Ada JoAnn Taylor, Debra Shelden, James Dean and Kathy Gonzalez, who were falsely found guilty in 1989 of the 1985 rape and murder of Helen Wilson in Beatrice, Nebraska and served prison terms before being exonerated in 2009. The conviction was one of five confessions which were obtained under threats that they would be given the death penalty if they did not.…
1984 · VirginiaOverturnedThomas Haynesworth
Thomas Haynesworth (born March 21, 1965) is a resident of Richmond, Virginia, who served 27 years in state prison as a result of four wrongful convictions for crimes for which he was exonerated in 2011. Haynesworth was arrested in Richmond at the age of 18 in 1984 after a woman identified him as her attacker. He was convicted of four violent rapes in the East End of the city.
1991 · IllinoisOverturnedDixmoor 5
The Dixmoor 5 are five African-American men who, as teenagers, were falsely convicted of the November 1991 rape and murder of 14-year-old Cateresa Matthews in Dixmoor, Illinois. At the time of arrest, the defendants, Robert Taylor, Jonathan Barr, James Harden, Robert Lee Veal and Shainne Sharp were all between the ages of 14 and 16. During high-pressure interviews, three of them gave false confessions leading to…