This list contains names of people who were found guilty of capital crimes and placed on death row who were later found to be wrongly convicted. Some people were exonerated posthumously.
This list includes individuals who were sentenced to death and had their sentences overturned by acquittal or pardon. The state listed is the state where the individual was convicted, the year listed is the year of release, and the case listed is the case that overturned their conviction.
This list does not include
- posthumous pardons for individuals executed before 1950
- inmates who were given life sentences when their country, province or state abolished the death penalty
- people who were threatened with death and never jailed.
- people who were jailed by extralegal groups or courts, for example as often occurs in cases of sentences of stoning.
Famous quotes containing the words list of, list, death and/or row:
“Love’s boat has been shattered against the life of everyday. You and I are quits, and it’s useless to draw up a list of mutual hurts, sorrows, and pains.”
—Vladimir Mayakovsky (1893–1930)
“We saw the machinery where murderers are now executed. Seven have been executed. The plan is better than the old one. It is quietly done. Only a few, at the most about thirty or forty, can witness [an execution]. It excites nobody outside of the list permitted to attend. I think the time for capital punishment has passed. I would abolish it. But while it lasts this is the best mode.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“Now they heap the funeral pyre,
And the torch of death they light;
Ah! ‘tis hard to die by fire!”
—William Makepeace Thackeray (1811–1863)
“You have a row of dominoes set up; you knock over the first one, and what will happen to the last one is that it will go over very quickly.”
—Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969)