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 Willie "Bo" Cochran
James Willie "Bo" Cochran (November 29, 1942 - July 12, 2016) was an African-American man from Bessemer, Alabama, who is known for his false conviction and later acquittal as a part of a robbery and murder of a store clerk in Jefferson County, Alabama. Cochran was sentenced to death and held on the state's death row for 19 years before finally being released in 1997. Cochran is also notable for appearances in media…
1985 · AlabamaOverturned
Anthony Ray Hinton
Anthony Ray Hinton (born June 1, 1956) is an American activist, writer, and author who was wrongly convicted of the 1985 murders of two fast food restaurant managers in Birmingham, Alabama. Hinton was sentenced to death and held on the state's death row for 28 years before his 2015 release. In 2014 the Supreme Court of the United States unanimously overturned his conviction on appeal, after which the state dismissed…
1988 · AlabamaOverturnedWalter McMillian
Walter "Johnny D." McMillian (October 27, 1941 – September 11, 2013) was a pulpwood worker from Monroeville, Alabama, who was wrongfully convicted of murder. His conviction was wrongfully obtained, based on police coercion and perjury. In the 1988 trial, under a controversial and now abolished Alabama doctrine known as judicial override, the judge imposed the death penalty, although the jury had voted for a sentence…
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…
Year unknown · AlabamaOverturnedBill Wilson
Bill Wilson (born 1880) was an American farmer in Blount County, Alabama who was wrongfully convicted of murdering his wife and youngest child, both of whom were later found alive.
Year unknown · AlabamaInnocence Project caseErvin Harris
In 2026, Ervin Harris was exonerated of a 1974 rape in Jefferson County, Alabama, for which he had served more than 42 years in prison.