THE REGISTRY IN THE NEWS - SELECTED STORIES
2022
The Crime Report: "‘We Must Dispel the Myth That We Always Get It Right’" (5/17/2022)
The Christian Science Monitor: "Fault, justice, and firsts in court, nature, and the newsroom" (5/16/22)
The Detroit News: "Michigan trailed just two other states for exonerations last year" (4/12/22)
wttw: "Illinois Once Again Leads Nation in Criminal Exonerations, Largely Due to Cases Tied to Ex-Chicago Sergeant" (4/12/22)
The Crime Report: "1,849 Lost Years: Exonerees in 2021" (4/12/22)
The Daily Wire: "They Were Falsely Accused During The Child Abuse Moral Panic Decades Ago. Their Sentences Were Just Vacated." (4/11/22)
The Tifton Gazette: "Exonerees OK'd for state pay: ‘Wrongful conviction’ motion stalls again." (4/11/22)
Black News: "Texas Death Row: Melissa Lucio asserted her innocence over 100 times" (4/3/22)
The Washington Post: "Opinion: Five teenagers. Recanted confessions. Convicted. Sound familiar?" (3/31/22)
Fort Worth Weekly: "Innocence Project of Texas: In a state obsessed with incarceration, a Fort Worth-based nonprofit works to overturn wrongful convictions." (3/23/22)
USA Today: "Who's to blame for wrongful convictions? Accountability demands more than finger-pointing." (3/19/22)
Telegram & Gazette: "New Hampshire released a statewide list of problem police officers. No such list exists in Massachusetts" (3/18/22)
The New York Times: "Court Declares Man Wrongfully Imprisoned for 45 Years" (3/11/22)
USA Today: "'I feel free': Chicago teen framed for 1985 murder becomes 3,000th person exonerated in US" (3/9/22)
De Moines Register: "They're out of prison, but still fighting to prove their innocence: 'I feel like I'm not free'" (3/7/22)
sfbay.ca.com: "Pathway to address wrongful convictions proposed under new Assembly bill" (3/2/22)
Law 360: "NJ Latest State To Probe Use Of Jailhouse Informants" (2/25/22)
Royal News: "How FBI , U.S prosecutors convict Nigerian on frame-up charges – Investigation" (2/23/22)
The Hill: "'Murderville' hosts say that systemic bias has lead to wrongful convictions" (2/19/22)
USA Today: "We know why innocent people are wrongfully convicted, so we fight for their right to sue police" (2/7/22)
Bloomberg Law: "Out of Prison and Broke, Wrongly Convicted Sell Their Cases (1)" (2/2/22)
syracuse.com: "Alice Sebold case: How race and incompetence doomed Anthony Broadwater to prison" (1/25/22)
Indy Week: "Local Law Scholars Differ on How to Approach Actual Innocence Work, But Agree That Reticence Among Prosecutors to Reopen Cases is One of the Greatest Obstacles to Achieving True Justice" (1/19/22)
Yahoo: "74-Year-Old Black Woman Exonerated for the Murder of Her Niece After Spending 27 Years in Prison" (1/18/22)
The Marshall Project: "Anatomy of a murder confession" (1/18/22)
Fox2 Detroit: "Wrongfully convicted Michiganders have lost more than 1,415 years of freedom" (1/10/22)
The Hill: "Remedying injustice for the wrongfully convicted does not end when they are released" (1/12/22)
New York Magazine: "David Simon Made Baltimore Detectives Famous. Now Their Cases Are Falling Apart. Has reality caught up to the 'Murder Police'?" (1/12/22)
2021
The News Courier: "State compensation difficult path for Ga. man freed from wrongful conviction" (12/23/21)
The Washington Post: "North Carolina governor grants pardon to man freed in 2016" (12/21/21)
The Crime Report: "‘Invisibility’ of Prosecutor Misconduct Erodes Trust: PA Report" (12/20/21)
The Hill: "To prevent wrongful convictions, invest in public defense solutions" (12/18/21)
New York Law Journal: "Criminal Injustice in New York State" (12/15/2021)
The Boston Globe: "Boston police and prosecutors hid evidence in a murder case. 18 years later, a man may go free" (12/9/21)
USA Today: "After 43 years in prison on a wrongful conviction, Kevin Strickland is getting no restitution. He's not alone." (12/9/21)
The Philadelphia Inquirer: "One lie led to the death of Emmett Till. How many others have sent Black men to jail?" (12/8/2021)
The New York Times: "More Than $1 Million Raised to Help Missouri Man Exonerated After 43 Years" (11/27/2021)
Slate: "What Does the Recent Set of Exonerations Tell Us About the Criminal Justice System?" (11/24/2021)
The New York Times: "Missouri Man Is Exonerated in 3 Killings After 43 Years in Prison" (11/23/2021)
Wisconsin Public Radio: "Jury rejects child abuse charge triggered by former University of Wisconsin doctor" (11/13/2021)
Black Enterprise: "A Man has served more than 40 years in prison for a triple murder prosecutors now say he didn't commit" (11/12/2021)
Patch: "Scourge' Of Misconduct Allegations Plague Queens DA's Office" (11/8/2021)
10 WBNS: "Columbus woman's exoneration makes history" (11/1/2021)
Discover Magazine: "Reforming Forensics: Why Academics Are Challenging the Science Behind U.S. Criminal Justice" (10/15/2021)
Hour Detroit: "Inside the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Unit That’s Exonerated 30 Innocent Convicts In 3 Years" (10/14/21)
Science: "The Sniff Test" (10/14/21)
Law 360: "States Must Rethink Wrongful Conviction Compensation Laws" (9/12/21)
Des Moines Register (Iowa): "Prosecutors: Pair in prison but innocent of murders; Missouri laws hinderefforts to overturn their convictions" (8/18/21)
The Post and Courier: "New ethics rule requires prosecutors to turn over evidence in wrongful convictions" (8/18/21)
The Washington Post: "Ex-Philadelphia homicide detectives arrested, accused of lying in wrongful conviction" (8/14/21)
CNN: "More than 2,800 have been wrongly convicted in the US. Lawmakers and advocates want to make sure they're paid their dues." (6/7/21)
The New York Times Magazine: "I Write About the Law. But Could I Really Help Free a Prisoner?" (6/30/21)
The Crime Report: "Why Did It Take 47 Years to Prove Anthony Mazza was Innocent?" (6/30/21)
Smithsonian Magazine: "A Sensational Murder Case That Ended in a Wrongful Conviction" (6/23/21)
The Crime Report: "Exonerated Defendants Lost 25,000 Years to Wrongful Imprisonment" (6/15/2021)
The Philadelphia Inquirer: "As Philly tops two dozen exonerations, city may face tens of millions in civil liability" (6/13/2021)
CSI Houston: "How a Texas lab has remade the science of forensics" (4/23/2021)
Charleston Gazette-Mail: "Joshua Higginbotham: Science must have its day in court (Opinion)" (4/6/2021)
The Progressive: "Making a List - of Cops Who Can't Be Trusted" (4/6/2021)
WTTW: "Illinois Led Nation in Criminal Exonerations For Third Straight Year: Report" (3/30/2021)
The Appeal: "Children Can be on Their Own when Grilled by Police. The Push for Protection is Growing." (3/25/2021)
Spectrum News 1: "They Knew He Didn't Do It": Benjamine Spencer's Mother Speaks Out" (3/25/2021)
The Kansas City Star: "Family of late Kansas exoneree says jailhouse informant bill could have saved his life" (3/17/2021)
Jackson Newspapers: "West Virginia House Judiciary Committee unanimously approves Legislation to address wrongful convictions" (3/16/2021)
Erie News Now: "This Wayne County, Michigan, program is helping exonerate people for crimes they didn't commit. Now it's going statewide" (3/1/2021)
The Oregonian: "Opinion: Oregon should pay those who are wrongfully convicted" (2/17/2021)
The New York Times: "3 Detectives Obtained a False Murder Confession. Was It One of Dozens?" (2/15/2021)
The Washington Post: "Opinion: Virginia must prevent wrongful executions" (2/2/2021)
WRCBtv: "This prisoner says he's been waiting 43 years for a fair trial in a racist Louisiana parish. A hearing may be his final chance" (1/5/2021)
2020
The New York Times: "Convicted Using False Testimony, Michigan Man is Free After 38 Years" (12/17/2020)
LA Times: "Opinion: Amid COVID closures, executions in 2020 dropped to lowest level in 30 years" (12/16/2020)
The Virginian Pilot: "A Lie Sent Her to Prison" (10/30/2020)
The Atlantic: "The Other Police Violence" (September 2020)
The New York Times: "The Roots of Wrongful Convictions" (9/16/2020)
The Washington Post: "Half of Wrongful Convictions Due to Misconduct" (9/16/2020)
The Associated Press: "Report: Alarming Rates of Official Misconduct" (9/15/2020)
WGBH: "Boston's Shameful History" (6/9/2020)
Reason: "Short Circuit: A Roundup of Recent Federal Court Decisions" (5/29/2020)
The Appeal: "I'm Pretty Sure I Should Be Going Home" (5/25/2020)
CBS News: "Missouri Prosecutors' Unit that Tried Inmate Scheduled to Die is Linked to Wrongful Convictions, Innocence Project Says" (5/19/2020)
Law360: "Mo. Exoneration Bid Tests Limits of Prosecutorial Power" (5/18/2020)
WHYY Radio: "He was Exonerated After Serving 40 Years in Prison. What does the State of Delaware Owe Him?" (5/13/2020)
The American Conservative: "We Could All be General Michael Flynn Tomorrow" (5/11/2020)
Colorado Sentinel: "Aurora Region Attorney Expand Eligibility Criteria for Review Applications Open to the Wrongfully Convicted" (4/29/2020)
Milwaukee Independent: "With Coronavirus in Our Prisons and Jails, Do All Lives Still Matter?" (4/28/2020)
The New Republic: "He Was Wrongly Imprisoned for 25 Years. It Wasn't DNA Evidence That Got Him Out" (4/22/2020)
The New York Times: "A police officer's Word Convicted Them. Now He's Charged with Murder." (2/26/2020)
The New Yorker: "A Murder Trial In Reverse" (2/24/2020)
NBC News: "Groveland Four, the black men pardoned after 1949 rape accusation, honored with memorial" (2/21/2020)
LiveScience: "Why do people confess to crimes they didn't commit?" (2/15/2020)
ABC News: “Man's case becomes 268th tossed conviction in state's history” (2/12/2020)
The Washington Post: "A rape kit that sat untested for decades just exonerated a wrongfully convicted man" (1/29/2020)
2019
New York Review of Books: “Jailed by Bad Science” (12/19/2019)
The Intercept: "21,000 Years Lost and Counting: Prosecutors are Working to Clear Wrongful Convictions, but Their Record is Mixed"
(4/24/19)
The New York Times: "A Leading Cause for Wrongful Convictions: Experts Overstating Forensic Results"
(4/20/19)
Reason: "U.S. Prisoners Have Lost a Combined 20,000 Years of Life to False Convictions"
(4/10/19)
WTTW - Chicago Public Media: "Illinois Leads Nation in Exonerations After Police Corruption Scandal"
(4/9/19)
Chicago Sun-Times: "Nearly 50 people in Illinois were exonerated of crimes in 2018, top in US"
(4/9/19)
2018
The Washington Post: "Report: Wrongful convictions have stolen at least 20,000 years from innocent defendants"
(9/10/18)
The Hill: "Good news, bad news for innocent people in prison"
(3/18/18)
NBC News: "More exonerations are driven by police and prosecutor misconduct"
(3/14/18)
The New York Times: "False Confessions, Mistaken Witnesses, Corrupt Investigators: Why 139 Innocent People Went to Jail"
(3/14/18)
The Texas Tribune: "Fewer exonerations in Texas' Harris County drove national rate lower too, study finds"
(3/14/18)
NPR: "Fewer Innocent Inmates Were Released From Prison In 2017, Study Says"
(3/14/18)
2017
BuzzFeed: "Why William Varnado Lied"
(3/21/17)
NBC News: "How One Texas County Drove a Record Rise in Exonerations"
(3/8/17)
The New York Times: "Black People More Likely to Be Wrongfully Convicted of Murder, Study Shows"
(3/7/17)
Los Angeles Times: "When Wrongful Convictions Affect Blacks More Than Whites, Can We Call it a Justice System?"
(3/7/17)
NPR and WBUR's Here & Now: "Reports Find Record Number of Exonerations, and Race Plays a Major Role"
(3/7/17)
Vox: "Study: Black People are 7 Times More Likely Than White People to be Wrongly Convicted of Murder"
(3/7/17)
2016
Wall Street Journal: "For Victims’ Families, the Torment of Exoneration"
(11/7/16)
McClatchy DC: "Why 2015 was a record year for the wrongfully convicted" and "Prosecutors look to free the innocent – but won't release findings"
(8/18/16)
Take Part: "The Proven Way to Keep More Innocent Teens From Confessing to Murder (and Why Police Won't Adopt It)" (6/17/16)
The Marshall Project: "For 50 Years, You've Had "The Right to Remain Silent"(6/12/16)
New York Times: "Prisoners Exonerated, Prosecutors Exposed" (2/12/16)
USA Today: "Alberto Gonzales: Justice system wrongs too many"
(2/10/16)
Washington Post: "The Uptick in Exonerations Highlights Problems in Our Criminal-Justice System"
(2/5/16)
The New York Times: "Record Number of False Convictions Overturned in 2015"
(2/3/16)
Guardian: "Nearly Three People a Week in US Exonerated of Crimes Last Year"
(2/3/16)
Associated Press: "Report Finds Record Number of US Exonerations in 2015" (2/3/16)
2015
Take Part: "The Curious Cases of Pleading Guilty While Innocent"
(11/20/15)
The Washington Post: "The Staggering Number of Wrongful Convictions In America"
(7/24/15)
Associated Press (Houston Chronicle): “Record number of exonerations driven by Texas drug cases”(1/27/15)
US News & World Report: “2014 a Record Year for Exonerations, Report Finds” (1/27/15)
Huffington Post: “Exonerations Of The Wrongfully Convicted Hit Record High In The U.S. In 2014”(1/27/15)
USA Today: “Exonerations hit record high in 2014” (1/27/15)
Time: “The U.S. Is Exonerating More People Than Ever” (1/27/15)
The Washington Post: “Record number of exonerations in the U.S., report says” (1/29/15)
Houston Chronicle: "DA, county officials meet on drug policy" (2/11/15)
2014
The New York Times: “Study puts Exonerations at Record Level in U.S.” (2/4/14)
Associated Press: “Prosecutors Help Set Record Number of Exonerations” (2/4/14)
Reuters: “U.S. criminals exonerated in 2013 climbs to record high: study” (2/4/14)
National Public Radio’s Here and Now: “Study Shows Record Number of Criminal Exonerations” (2/4/14)
Time:“Record Number of U.S. Prisoners Exonerated in 2013” (2/4/14)
Huffington Post: “A Record Number Of Inmates Were Exonerated Last Year For Crimes They Didn't Commit” (2/4/14)
The Atlantic: “Why Some States Still Fight the Exoneration of the Innocent” (2/6/14)
2013
Huffington Post: “National Registry Of Exonerations Sees Prosecutors And Police Give More Help To Wrongly Convicted” (4/5/13)
National Public Radio’s Talk of the Nation: “Life After Exoneration, For The Victims On Both Sides”(4/15/13)
NBC News: “Law enforcement leads the way in overturning bad convictions, group says” (4/3/13)
2012
Associated Press: “Study: 2,000 convicted then exonerated in 23 years” (5/20/12)
Los Angeles Times: “Registry tallies over 2,000 wrongful convictions since 1989” (5/20/12)
Huffington Post: “National Registry Of Exonerations: More Than 2,000 People Freed After Wrongful Convictions” (5/21/12)
USA Today: “New database tracks exonerations in USA” (5/21/12)
CNN:“More than 2,000 wrongfully convicted people exonerated in 23 years, researchers say” (5/21/12)
National Public Radio’s All Things Considered: "Exoneration List Shows Patterns In False Convictions”(5/22/12)