List of exonerated death row inmates

1. Posthumous pardons for individuals executed before 1950;
2. Inmates who were given life sentences when their country, province or state abolished the death penalty;
3. People who were threatened with death and never jailed;
4. People who were jailed by groups or courts, for example as often occurs in cases of sentences of stoning.

   List by country

Japan

• Masao Akahori

• Sakae Menda

  Taiwan

• Su Chien-ho, Liu Bing-lang, and Chuang Lin-hsun were sentenced to death for the 1991 murder of Wu Ming-han and his wife Yeh Ying-lan in Hsichih, Taipei county, Taiwan. They were acquitted in 2012.

• Cheng Hsing-tse was sentenced to death for the 2002 murder of a police officer in Fengyuan, Taichung, Taiwan. He was acquitted in May 2016.

  United Kingdom

• Timothy Evans, convicted and hanged 1950, pardoned 1966.

• Mahmood Hussein Mattan, convicted and hanged 1952, conviction quashed 1998.
• Derek Bentley, convicted 1952, executed 1953, pardoned 1993, conviction quashed 1998.

• Death penalty for murder abolished.

• Despite abolition in the UK, the separate legal systems meant death sentences still passed in Northern Ireland, Isle of Man and Channel Islands but with no likelihood of their being carried out. One Provisional Irish Republican Army member was sentenced to death for murder before this anomaly was abolished. European Union protocols signed in 1999 on human rights mean no death penalty statute can exist in an EU country.

  United States

1970s

• Delbert Tibbs, Florida. Convicted 1974.
• Freddie Pitts and Wilbur Lee, accused of murdering a gas station attendant.

  1980s

• Joseph Green Brown. Although the prosecution dropped all charges after a new trial was ordered, his conviction was not expunged causing difficulty with employment, and no compensation was given. He was re-arrested in 2012 and charged with the murder of his wife in North Carolina, for which he was convicted on September 12, 2013.
• Perry Cobb. Illinois. Convicted October 15, 1979.
• Darby J. Tillis. Illinois. Convicted October 15, 1979. Perry Cobb and Darby Tillis, two African American men were convicted of First Degree Murder after a third trial by an all-white jury. The primary witness in the case, Phyllis Santini, was determined to be an accomplice of the actual killer by the Illinois Supreme Court. The Judge in the case, Thomas J. Maloney was later convicted of accepting bribes.

• Randall Dale Adams, Texas . Convicted 1977. The Adams case was the subject of The Thin Blue Line.

  1990s

• Walter McMillian, Alabama. Convicted 1988.
• Gregory R. Wilhoit, Oklahoma. Convicted 1987. Along with Ron Williamson, Wilhoit later became the subject of John Grisham's 2006 non-fiction book .

• Robert Charles Cruz, Arizona. Convicted 1981.
• Rolando Cruz and Alejandro Hernandez, Illinois. Convicted 1985.

• Joseph Burrows, Illinois. Convicted 1989. Joseph Burrows was released from death row after his attorney Kathleen Zellner persuaded the real killer to confess at the post-conviction hearing, and Peter Rooney, a reporter for the Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette, obtained a recantation from a key witness. The Burrows case was the subject of a book by Rooney titled Die Free: A True Story of Murder, Betrayal and Miscarried Justice.
• Verneal Jimerson and Dennis Williams, Illinois. Convicted 1985.
• Gary Gauger, Illinois. Convicted 1993.

• Shareef Cousin, Louisiana. Convicted 1996.
• Anthony Porter, Illinois. Convicted 1983.
• Ron Williamson, Oklahoma. Convicted 1988. Along with Gregory R. Wilhoit, Williamson later became the inspiration for and subject of John Grisham's 2006 non-fiction book The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town.
• Ronald Jones, Illinois. Convicted 1989.

  2000s

2000

• Earl Washington, Jr., Virginia. Convicted 1994.
• Frank Lee Smith, Florida. Convicted 1985. Smith died in prison in January 2000, before being exonerated later that year.

  2001

• Charles Irvin Fain, Idaho. Convicted 1983.

  2002

• Juan Roberto Melendez-Colon, Florida. Convicted 1984.
• Ray Krone, Arizona ). Convicted 1992.

  2003

• Nicholas Yarris, Pennsylvania. Convicted 1982.
• John Thompson, Louisiana. Convicted 1985.

  2004

• Alan Gell, North Carolina. Convicted 1995.
• Ernest Willis, Texas. Convicted 1987.
• Kirk Bloodsworth, Maryland. Convicted 1985. Kirk Bloodsworth is the first person sentenced to death row to be exonerated by DNA evidence.
• Ryan Matthews, Louisiana. Convicted 1999.

  2007

• Curtis McCarty, Oklahoma. Convicted 1986.

  2008

• Kennedy Brewer, Mississippi. Convicted 1995.
• Glen Edward Chapman, North Carolina. Convicted 1995.
• Levon "Bo" Jones, North Carolina. Convicted 1993.
• Michael Blair, Texas. Convicted 1994.

  2009

• Nathson Fields, Illinois. Convicted 1986.
• Paul House, Tennessee. Convicted 1986.
• Daniel Wade Moore, Alabama. Convicted 2002.
• Ronald Kitchen, Illinois. Convicted 1988.
• Michael Toney, Texas. Convicted 1999. Toney later died in a car accident on October 3, 2009, just one month and a day after his exoneration.

  2010s

2010

• Joe D'Ambrosio, Ohio. Convicted 1989. While he was freed in 2010, but not yet exonerated, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal by the state of Ohio challenging the unconditional writ of habeas corpus and bar to D'Ambrosio's re-prosecution on January 23, 2012, nearly two years later, making D'Ambrosio the 140th death row exoneree since 1973.
• Anthony Graves, Texas. Convicted 1994.

  2011

• Gussie Vann, Tennessee. Convicted 1984.

  2012

• Damon Thibodeaux, Louisiana. Convicted 1997.
• Seth Penalver, Florida. Convicted 1994.

  2013

• Reginald Griffin, Missouri. Convicted 1983.

  2014

• Glenn Ford, Louisiana. Convicted 1984.
• Carl Dausch, Florida. Convicted 2011.
• Henry Lee McCollum and Leon Brown, North Carolina. Convicted 1984.
• Ricky Jackson, Ronnie Bridgeman, and Wiley Bridgeman, Cleveland, Ohio. Convicted 1975.
• George Stinney Jr., South Carolina. Convicted in 1944 at the age of 14 for the murders of two girls and sentenced to death by electrocution. Exonerated posthumously in 2014.

  2015

• Debra Milke, Arizona. Convicted 1990.
• Anthony Ray Hinton, Alabama. Convicted 1985.
• Willie Manning, Mississippi. Convicted 1996.
• Alfred Brown, Texas. Convicted 2005.
• Lawrence William Lee, Georgia. Convicted 1987.
• Derral Wayne Hodgkins, Florida. Convicted 2013.
• William Antunes, Massachusetts. Convicted 1990.

  2017

• Isaiah McCoy, Delaware. Convicted 2010.
• Rodricus Crawford, Louisiana. Convicted 2013.
• Ralph Wright, Florida. Convicted 2014.
• Rickey Newman, Arkansas. Convicted 2002.
• Gabriel Solache, Illinois. Convicted 2000.
• Robert Miller, Oklahoma. Convicted 1988.

  2018

• Vicente Benavides, California. Convicted 1993.
• Clemente Aguirre-Jarquin, Florida. Convicted 2006.

  2019

• Paul Browning, Nevada. Convicted 1986.
• Clifford Williams, Florida. Convicted 1976.
• Charles Finch, North Carolina. Convicted 1976.

  Canada

• Steven Truscott was convicted of a schoolmate's murder in 1959 and sentenced at age 14 to death by hanging. His sentence was commuted to life in prison four months later, and he was paroled in 1969. His conviction was overturned in 2007 for "miscarriage of justice".