2019 Innocents Database Exoneration Report

In 2019 there were 11,178 known exonerations in the United States, and 4,086 known exonerations in other countries. The 2019 Innocents Database Exoneration Report provides detailed information about those exonerations. In 41 tables, 15 charts and 2 maps the Report provides a wealth of information about 2019, and cumulative data for the years 2019 to 2010, 1989 to 2019, and pre-1989.

The information in the 2019 Report includes the number of exonerations by country, and by U.S. states and counties; and cumulative information about exonerees such as their years imprisoned, convicted crimes, the type of evidence that resulted in their exoneration, and their age when convicted and released from custody. Also included are the number of people exonerated by DNA evidence; the granting of a federal habeas petition; the assistance of a conviction review unit or an innocence network organization; and much much more.

The 2019 Innocents Database Exoneration Report is the fourth yearly report of information recorded in the Innocents Database. The Innocents Database is an ongoing independent non-profit project begun in February 1997. It is the only database in the world that records every documentable exoneration in the United States and every other country. Through the end of 2019 the Innocents Database included a total of more than 156,000 known exonerees in a wrongful conviction case. More than 49,000 of those wrongly convicted persons were in the United States, and more than 106,000 were in other countries. The database can be accessed on the Justice Denied website at www.justicedenied.org or directly at www.justicedenied.org/exonerations.htm .