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Basic Patterns

As of November 2016, the Registry included 1,927 exonerees:

  • Sex: 90% men; 10% women.
  • Race: 47% black; 39% white; 12% Hispanic; 2% Native American, Asian or Other.
  • Trials and Guilty Pleas: 76% convicted by juries; 7% convicted by judges; 17% pled guilty.
  • Crimes: 42% falsely convicted of homicide; 26% of sexual assault (includes 11% convicted of child sex abuse); 14% of other violent crimes; 18% of non-violent crimes.
  • DNA: 23% were exonerated at least in part by DNA evidence; 77% without DNA evidence.
  • Time served: All told, these exonerees spent nearly 16,936 years in prison–on average 9 years each. Almost all (80%) were imprisoned for more than one year; 37% for 10 years or more; 57% 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: 51%
    • Mistaken Witness Identification: 30%
    • False or Misleading Forensic Evidence: 24%
    • False Confessions: 12%

Among exonerations in specific crime categories:

  • The rate of Perjury or False Accusations is highest in child sex abuse cases (84%) and homicide cases (68%).
  • The rate of Official Misconduct is highest in homicide cases (68%).
  • The rate of Mistaken Identifications is highest in sexual assault cases (69%).
  • The rate of False or Misleading Forensic Evidence is highest in homicide cases (23%) and non-violent crime (such as drug possession) cases (31%).
  • The rate of False Confessions is highest in homicide cases (21%).