Exoneration occurs when the

conviction In law, a conviction is the determination by a court of law that a defendant is Guilty (law), guilty of a crime. A conviction may follow a guilty plea that is accepted by the court, a jury trial in which a verdict of guilty is delivered, or a ...

for a

crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a State (polity), state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definiti ...

is reversed, either through demonstration of innocence, a flaw in the conviction, or otherwise. Attempts to exonerate individuals are particularly controversial in

death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in s ...

cases, especially where new evidence is put forth after the execution has taken place. The transitive verb, "to exonerate" can also mean to informally absolve one from blame. The term "exoneration" also is used in criminal law to indicate a surety, i.e. bail bond has been satisfied, completed, and exonerated. The judge orders the bond exonerated; the clerk of court time stamps the original

bail bond Bail is a set of pre-trial restrictions that are imposed on a suspect to ensure that they will not hamper the judicial process. Court bail may be offered to secure the conditional release of a defendant with the promise to appear in court when r ...

power and indicates exonerated as the judicial order.

Based on DNA evidence

DNA evidence is a relatively new instrument of exoneration. The first convicted defendant from a United States prison to be released on account of DNA testing was David Vasquez, who had been convicted of

homicide Homicide is an act in which a person causes the death of another person. A homicide requires only a Volition (psychology), volitional act, or an omission, that causes the death of another, and thus a homicide may result from Accident, accidenta ...

, in 1989. Subsequently, DNA evidence was used to exonerate a number of persons either on

death row Death row, also known as condemned row, is a place in a prison that houses inmates awaiting execution after being convicted of a capital crime and sentenced to death. The term is also used figuratively to describe the state of awaiting executio ...

or serving lengthy prison sentences. , the number of states authorizing individuals to request DNA testing on their behalf had increased from two to thirty. Access to DNA testing then and now can vary greatly by degree; post-conviction tests can be difficult to acquire. Organizations such as the

Innocence Project Innocence Project, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit legal organization that works to exonerate the wrongly convicted through DNA testing and other forms of post-conviction relief, as well as advocates for criminal justice reform to prevent futur ...

and

Centurion In the Roman army during classical antiquity, a centurion (; , . ; , or ), was a commander, nominally of a century (), a military unit originally consisting of 100 legionaries. The size of the century changed over time; from the 1st century BC ...

are particularly concerned with the exoneration of those who have been convicted based on weak or faulty evidence, regardless of DNA evidence. In October 2003, prosecutors of criminal cases must approve the defendant's request for DNA testing in certain cases. Monday, April 23, 2007, Jerry Miller became the 200th person in the United States exonerated through the use of DNA evidence. There is a national campaign in support of the formation of state Innocence Commissions, statewide entities that identify causes of wrongful convictions and develop state reforms that can improve the criminal justice system. As of 2020, 375 people in the U.S. have been exonerated based on DNA tests. In nearly half of these cases, faulty forensics contributed to the original conviction. Per February 4, 2014 NPR article, Laura Sullivan cited Samuel Gross, a

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

law professor stating that exonerations were on the rise, and not just because of DNA evidence. Only one-fifth of the exonerations in 2013 relied on newly tested DNA, a little less than a third of exonerations occurred due to further investigating by law enforcement agencies. According to a 2020 study, DNA exonerations in rape cases "strongly suggest that the wrongful-conviction rate is significantly higher among black individuals than white individuals."

Exonerees after exoneration

Wrongful conviction has many social, economic, and psychological consequences for people later exonerated, especially for death row exonerees. After exoneration, some exonerees publicly have joined or formed organizations like Witness to Innocence and the

to tell their stories as a form of advocacy against the death penalty, prison conditions, or other criminal justice issues.

References

External links

National Registry of Exonerations
a registry of exonerations in the United States since 1989; a joint project of the

University of Michigan Law School The University of Michigan Law School (branded as Michigan Law) is the law school of the University of Michigan, a public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Founded in 1859, the school offers Master of Laws (LLM), Master of Comparati ...

and

Northwestern University School of Law The Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law (formerly known as Northwestern University School of Law from 1891 to 2015) is the law school of Northwestern University, a Private university, private research university. The law school is l ...

{{Miscarriage of Justice Criminal procedure Wrongful convictions

Based on DNA evidence

Exonerees after exoneration

See also

References

External links