Basic Patterns

As of June 2015, the Registry included 1,614 exonerees:

• Sex: 91% men; 9% women.
• Race: 47% black; 40% white; 11% Hispanic; 2% Native American, Asian or Other.
• Trials and Guilty Pleas: 79% convicted by juries; 7% convicted by judges; 13% pled guilty.
• Crimes: 44% falsely convicted of homicide; 28% of sexual assault (includes 11% convicted of child sex abuse); 14% of other violent crimes; 14% of non-violent crimes.
• DNA: 25% were exonerated at least in part by DNA evidence; 75% without DNA evidence.
• Time served: All told, these exonerees spent nearly 14,780 years in prison–on average 9 years each. Almost all were imprisoned for years; 39% for 10 years or more; 60% for at least 5 years.
• Contributing factors that led to their wrongful convictions (many cases have multiple factors):
  • Perjury or False Accusation: 56%
  • Official Misconduct: 45%
  • Mistaken Witness Identification: 33%
  • False or Misleading Forensic Evidence: 23%
  • False Confessions: 13%

Among exonerations in specific crime categories:

• The rate of Perjury or False Accusations is highest in child sex abuse cases (80%) and homicide cases (67%).
• The rate of Official Misconduct is highest in homicide cases (60%) and child sex abuse (44%).
• The rate of Mistaken Identifications is highest in adult sexual assault cases (72%).
• The rate of False or Misleading Forensic Evidence is highest in adult sexual assault cases (32%) and child sex abuse cases (23%).
• The rate of False Confessions is highest in homicide cases (21%).