Conviction review
Convictions that were overturned, and innocence claims courts are ruling on this week. Read what the evidence was and where it broke.
Alexander McClay Williams
Alexander McClay Williams (July 23, 1914 – June 8, 1931) was an African-American teenager wrongfully convicted and executed for the 1930 murder of 33-year-old Vida Robare, a matron of the Glen Mills reform school he attended, in Pennsylvania. Williams confessed to the murder during an interrogation in which neither a parent nor an attorney was present. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania wrongfully executed Williams…
1991Overturned
Christopher Dunn
Christopher Dunn (born 1971) is an African American man who was wrongfully convicted of murder in 1991 and exonerated in 2024.
1982 · PennsylvaniaOverturned
Imprisonment of Subramanyam Vedam
Subramanyam "Subu" Vedam, an Indian-American man from State College, Pennsylvania, was arrested in 1982 at 19 for the fatal shooting of his friend, 19-year-old Thomas Kinser from Boalsburg, Pennsylvania. He was wrongfully convicted of murder by the Centre County Court of Common Pleas and sentenced to life in prison in 1983. After being incarcerated for 43 years at SCI Huntingdon, Vedam was exonerated of first-degree…
1953 · TexasOverturnedTommy Lee Walker
Tommy Lee Walker was an African-American man who was wrongfully convicted and executed by the state of Texas for the 1953 rape and murder of Venice Parker, a 31-year-old white woman from Dallas. Walker's conviction heavily relied upon a dubious confession he made to police under duress, which he later recanted. In January, 2026, nearly 70 years after his execution, Dallas County unanimously passed a resolution…
1990 · New YorkOverturnedMurder of Chaskel Werzberger
On February 8, 1990, Chaskel Werzberger, a 56-year-old rabbi, was shot and killed in Brooklyn, New York. David Ranta was wrongfully convicted of the murder, and served 23 years in prison before being released in 2013.
1983 · FloridaOverturnedRobert DuBoise
Robert Earl DuBoise (born October 1964) is an American who was wrongfully convicted in 1983 for the rape and murder of 19-year-old Barbara Grams in Tampa, Florida. He spent nearly 37 years in prison, including three years on death row, before being exonerated in August 2020 through DNA evidence facilitated by the Innocence Project and the Hillsborough County Conviction Review Unit. In 2024, DuBoise received a $14…
1997 · AlabamaOverturnedJames Willie "Bo" Cochran
James Willie "Bo" Cochran (November 29, 1942 - July 12, 2016) was an African-American man from Bessemer, Alabama, who is known for his false conviction and later acquittal as a part of a robbery and murder of a store clerk in Jefferson County, Alabama. Cochran was sentenced to death and held on the state's death row for 19 years before finally being released in 1997. Cochran is also notable for appearances in media…
1930Overturned
Pep
Pep (c. 1923 – 1930) was a black Labrador Retriever who was falsely accused of murdering a cat. On August 31, 1924, Pep was sent to the Eastern State Penitentiary where he received inmate number C-2559 and had his mugshot and paw prints taken.
1999 · TexasOverturned
1999 Tulia drug arrests
A total of 47 individuals, the majority of whom were African American, were arrested in 1999 in Tulia, Texas on charges of cocaine dealing as a result of an undercover operation carried out by agent Tom Coleman. Coleman's testimony was crucial in the convictions of 38 of the 47. Years later, 35 of the 38 incarcerated were pardoned by Texas governor Rick Perry.
1967 · North CarolinaOverturnedHenry McCollum and Leon Brown
Henry Lee McCollum (born March 26, 1964) and Leon Brown (born November 24, 1967) are two African American men who were wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death for a murder they did not commit. McCollum and Brown were two intellectually disabled teenage brothers, 19 and 15 years old respectively, when a local of Robeson County, North Carolina, implicated them in the 1983 rape and murder of 11-year-old Sabrina…
1979 · MissouriOverturnedKevin Strickland
Kevin Bernard Strickland (born June 7, 1959) is an American man who, in 1979, was wrongfully convicted, by an all-white jury, of killing three people in Kansas City, Missouri. No physical evidence linked him to the crime scene and the only alleged witness later recanted her testimony that Strickland was involved, stating that she had been coerced by police. Strickland was given a life sentence.
2019OverturnedArchie Williams
Archie Charles Williams (born March 23, 1961) is an American singer who appeared on season 15 of America's Got Talent. He was wrongfully incarcerated for 37 years in prison and released on March 21, 2019.
Year unknown · MichiganOverturnedMurder of Jodi Parrack
Jodi Christine Parrack (September 2, 1996 – November 8, 2007) was an 11-year-old girl from Constantine, Michigan who was kidnapped while riding her bicycle on a local street, then sexually assaulted and murdered. Her case drew considerable media attention not only due to the heinous nature of the crime but also due to the wrongful conviction and incarceration of an innocent man, Ray McCann.
1985 · AlabamaOverturned
Anthony Ray Hinton
Anthony Ray Hinton (born June 1, 1956) is an American activist, writer, and author who was wrongly convicted of the 1985 murders of two fast food restaurant managers in Birmingham, Alabama. Hinton was sentenced to death and held on the state's death row for 28 years before his 2015 release. In 2014 the Supreme Court of the United States unanimously overturned his conviction on appeal, after which the state dismissed…
1916Overturned
Warren Billings
Warren Knox Billings (July 4, 1893 – September 4, 1972) was a labor leader and political activist, who was convicted with Thomas Mooney of the San Francisco Preparedness Day Bombing of 1916. It is believed that the two were wrongly convicted of a crime they did not commit. Billings served 23 years in prison before being released in 1939 and finally being pardoned in 1961 by governor Edmund G. Brown.
1983Overturned
Bruce Lisker
Bruce Lisker (born 1965) is an American who was wrongfully convicted of the 1983 murder of his adoptive mother, Dorka Lisker. Arrested in 1983 at age 17 and convicted of second-degree murder in 1985, he served more than 26 years of a 16-years-to-life sentence before a United States district court overturned the conviction in 2009 and all charges were dismissed later that year.
1913OverturnedThomas and Meeks Griffin
Thomas Griffin and Meeks Griffin (died September 29, 1915) were American brothers and prominent Black farmers who were wrongfully executed for the 1913 murder of John Q. Lewis. Their conviction, as well as that of their co-defendants, Nelson Brice and John Crosby, was based on the testimony by a fifth codefendant, who was sentenced to life imprisonment in exchange for his cooperation.
1988 · AlabamaOverturnedWalter McMillian
Walter "Johnny D." McMillian (October 27, 1941 – September 11, 2013) was a pulpwood worker from Monroeville, Alabama, who was wrongfully convicted of murder. His conviction was wrongfully obtained, based on police coercion and perjury. In the 1988 trial, under a controversial and now abolished Alabama doctrine known as judicial override, the judge imposed the death penalty, although the jury had voted for a sentence…
1973Overturned
Chol Soo Lee
Chol Soo Lee (August 15, 1952 – December 2, 2014) was a Korean American immigrant who was wrongfully convicted for the 1973 murder of Yip Yee Tak, a San Francisco Chinatown gang leader, and sentenced to life in prison. While in prison, he was sentenced to death for the killing of another prisoner, Aryan Brotherhood member Morrison Needham, though Chol Soo claimed self-defense. Chol Soo served ten years of his…
Year unknownOverturnedJohn Gordon Purvis
John Gordon Purvis Jr. (born 1942) is an American man who spent nine years in prison for a murder he did not commit.
2002Overturned
Juan Roberto Melendez-Colon
Juan Roberto Melendez-Colon (born May 24, 1951) is a public speaker and human rights activist who was wrongly convicted of murder and spent over 17 years on death row. He was released from prison on January 3, 2002, making him the 99th death row inmate in the United States to be exonerated and released from prison since 1973.
1945Overturned
Charles B. McVay III
Charles Butler McVay III (August 31, 1898 – November 6, 1968) was an American naval officer and the commanding officer of the cruiser USS Indianapolis which was lost in action in 1945, resulting in a significant loss of life. Of all captains in the history of the United States Navy, he is the only one subjected to court-martial for losing a ship sunk by an act of war, despite the fact that he was on a top secret…
Year unknown · MichiganOverturnedKen Wyniemko
Ken Wyniemko is one of two former prisoners in Michigan released on DNA evidence with help from the Innocence Project. Wyniemko was convicted of first-degree criminal sexual misconduct on circumstantial evidence and the testimony of a prisoner informant, Glen McCormick, who now admits he lied in order to avoid life in prison. DNA testing was not regularly performed at the time, but even the primitive blood tests of…
1986 · GeorgiaOverturnedDouglas Echols
Douglas Echols was convicted in a 1986 rape case. In 2002, his charges were finally cleared through DNA testing after he served over five years in prison. In 2005, a resolution was introduced in the Georgia Assembly by Representatives Tom Bordeaux and Chuck Sims requesting $1.6 million as compensation for his incarceration; however, the resolution was not approved.