| Year | State | Details of Exoneration |
| 1901 | Illinois | Michael J. Synon was convicted in 1900 for the bludgeoning death of his wife. Despite over 20 witnesses that he was at a local saloon at the time of the murder, he was convicted based on testimony from neighbors that he abused his wife and their 10-year-old son saw them arguing the same morning. Due to the judge in during the trial making inappropriate remarks about Synon and not allowing the defense to show evidence about a boarder who lived at the home at the time, had disappeared right after the murder, a re-trial was ordered. During the new trial, new testimony from a witness described a man who was not Synon enter the home just before the murder leading to his acquittal. |
| 1902 | Federal | Henry Miller was convicted in 1888 for the murder of a hiker he and his friend, William Woods, had met at Commodore Hollow on the Cherokee Nation reserve. After multiple plea's of innocence, it eventually caught the attention of President Harrison's Attorney General H. H. Miller who demanded a more thorough investigation. The secondary investigation brought to light that hiker the two met was actually alive for several weeks after the supposed murder took place and that the witnesses from the original trial were wrong. Despite Woods receiving a pardon in 1889, Henry Miller merely had his sentenced commuted to life in prison. After 10 years in prison, Miller reached out to Attorney General Philander Knox. Upon his request, President Theodore Roosevelt pardoned him in 1902. |
| 1905 | Pennsylvania | Samuel Greason was convicted in 1901 for the bludgeoning death of the husband of his lover, Kate Edwards. Greason, a black man, was having an affair with the wife of his co-worker, a white woman. She was pregnant at the time of the murder and was convicted to life in prison on testimony given by Greason that she wanted to kill her husband and often complained about him. After her trial, he was arrested on suspicion of being her accomplice due to her having a mixed race baby and the prosecution theorized that was the true motive for the murder. Edwards then testified at his trial that he was the one who actually killed her husband. He was sentenced to death but the execution date was delayed 10 times until the day before his final execution date when she recanted her testimony. He was re-tried and acquitted in 1905 and pardoned in 1914. |
| 1908 | Tennessee | Floyd Westfield, a black man, was convicted in 1906 for the murder of Alonzo Rains, a white constable, during a Christmas celebration. Westfield admitted to killing Rains, but said he acted in self-defense. On February 4, 1906, Westfield was convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to death. However, the Tennessee Supreme Court ordered a new trial, finding that a lesser conviction would be more appropriate. Westfield's second trial ended in a hung jury, with one juror favoring a second degree murder conviction, one juror favoring a manslaughter conviction, and two jurors favoring an acquittal. The third trial resulted in Westfield again being convicted of first degree murder and having his death sentence reinstated. However, the Tennessee Supreme Court overturned his conviction, finding that the facts of the case did not warrant a first degree murder conviction. At his fourth trial, the prosecution chose to only try Westfield for manslaughter. On February 25, 1908, Westfield was acquitted and released from custody. It was determined that Constable Rains was abusive and had attacked Westfield, who had committed no crime, without any lawful justification. Constable Rains, who had been courting a local school teacher, became enraged by the noise being made from a nearby party at the home of Westfield's grandmother, where firecrackers and Roman candles were being set. Even as his own friends tried to dissuade him, Rains attacked Westfield's grandmother's house, firing a shot through the door with his pistol. In response, Westfield shot and killed him. The death of Constable Rains contributed to the racist atmosphere that resulted in the lynching of Ed Johnson. |
| Year | State | Details of Exoneration |
| 1911 | Tennessee | David Sherman and two others were convicted in 1907 for the murder of Elisha Hicks. Sherman and Beulah McGhee, both black men, were shooting craps at Bob Henderson's house when Hicks, a white man, was found found dead by the railroad tracks. The three were arrested under suspicion they robbed Hicks. A few days before their execution dates, McGhee confessed he alone murdered Hicks, leading to while Governor Malcolm Patterson ordered further investigation. McGhee was hanged in 1907, Sherman was pardoned in 1911, and Henderson died in prison in 1912. |
| 1911 | Pennsylvania | Andrew Toth was convicted in absentia in 1891 for the beating death of an Irish man during a riot. The riot started when 200 Hungarian workers on strike stormed a factory where Irish strikebreakers were working, leading to the death of 16 men. Toth was convicted on the sole, problematic testimony of a man of Irish descent. After spending almost 19 years in prison, the real murder, Steve Toth, confessed to the murder when he believed he was dying of typhoid fever. He had fled the country immediately after the riot and his confession had reached Pennsylvania courts leading to Andrew's exoneration. Both men had lived in the same share house, had no resemblance, and were not related. |
| 1911 | Massachusetts | Stearns Kendall Abbott was convicted in 1880 of the shooting murder of Maria Crue. Two witnesses placed a bearded transient nearby on the day of the murder with one claiming she saw the man speak with Crue. Abbot was identified as the transient afterwards. Unfortunately, the defense could not find any witnesses to back up the claim that Abbot was on a train bound for Boston at the time or that the main witness, Jennie Carr, was having an affair with the victims husband and birthed his child. He was convicted to hang, however, a witnesses only known as "a young factory girl from Lowell" claimed that Carr had acknowledged that she had falsely accused Abbott. A few weeks later, the girl's body was found in the Charles River. Multiple citizens groups would push for a pardon until one was granted in 1911 when Abbot was 71. |
| 1912 | Federal | Robert Sawyer, Arthur Adams, and Henry Scott, all of whom were black, were convicted in 1905 of the racially motivated murders of five crew members, four of whom were white, aboard the Harry A. Berwind. Several days before his execution, Scott made a written confession, stating that he was guilty and solely responsible for the murders. In response, President Theodore Roosevelt commuted their sentences to life imprisonment. Both men were pardoned by President William Howard Taft in 1912. |
| 1913 | Florida | J.B. Brown was convicted in 1901 of the shooting death of Harry Wesson. On the day of the murder, the sheriff rounded up a few suspects and threw them in jail. One was the railyard watchman of where the body was found. That night, a jailer claimed to see Brown, a former brakeman on the railyard, talking to the watchman through the fence and tell him to keep his mouth shut. While Brown was held in prison, his cellmate, Alonzo Mitchell, claimed Brown confessed to him, reporting that Brown had admitted he and Jim “J.J.” Johnson had plotted to kill Wesson, and that Brown had shot Wesson with Johnson’s gun. Despite refuting most of the witnesses testimony, he was convicted and sentenced to hang. Due to a clerical error, his execution date was postponed and he was able to get his sentence commuted to life in prison. In 1902, the charges against Johnson were dismissed. Almost a decade later, Johnson admitted he committed the murder by himself and Brown was innocent. On the recommendation of the judge and prosecuting attorney, Brown was pardoned but in 1913 and in 1929, sought a pension for his time wrongfully convicted which was granted to him to the total of $2,492, to be paid in monthly installments of $25. |
| 1915 | Tennessee | John McElwrath was convicted in 1903 for the murder of Will Wilson. Wilson and McElwrath, black work hands with the Illinois Central Railroad, were both riding freight trains to Mounds, Illinois for their paychecks. However, on the ride back, the train made a sudden stop due to finding Wilson's body on the tracks. McElwrath was found with a revolver that was suspected of being recently fired and arrested. Despite no evidence tying his gun to the actual murder, he was convicted and sentenced to hang. Days before his execution, prompted by letters and petitions from prominent businessmen and Dresden city officials, Governor Frazier commuted his sentence to life in prison. After 10 years, an unknown witness on his deathbed admitted that a friend of his murdered Wilson. Attorney Duke C. Bowers, with the assistance of Selden Maiden, the brother of the judge who had sentenced McElwrath to death, pushed for a pardon Governor Ben W. Hooper on his last day in office, pardoned McElwrath in 1915. For compensation for his wrongful conviction, the state gave him $.25 and a train ticket to Dresden, Tennessee. |
| 1917 | Illinois | Herman Zajicek was convicted in 1907 for the arsenic murders of a family of five ages 10, 12, 18, and 20-year-old Mary. Police paid little, if any, attention to the 1905 deaths until December 3, 1906, when a Chicago American article suggested Zajicek, a 39-year-old Bohemian fortuneteller, was responsible. Zajicek, who had been performing "magical" services for the family, was suspected along with the matriarch, Rose Vrzal, who was the beneficiary of life insurance policies on the victims. Police questioned the surviving son, 15-year-old Jerry Vrzal, who, after being told that Zajicek had accused him, testified that he overheard Zajicek and his mother plotting the murders to collect insurance. Rose died of apparent arsenic suicide shortly after being taken into custody which prompted the exhumation of the family. Based largely on Jerry's testimony, Zajicek was convicted in 1907 for the murder of Mary Vrzal and sentenced to death, although he was suspected of the other deaths. Thanks to Father P.J. O'Callaghan, Zajick had his execution stayed and in 1908, Jerry Vrzal recanted his testimony, admitting the police pressured him to lie. New evidence also emerged suggesting the involvement of the married daughter, Emma Vrzal Niemann, who Zajicek had accused during his trial. Her father-in-law, Henry Niemann, had died in 1905 while Emma lived with him, and whose body was found to contain arsenic. In 1909, Governor Deneen commuted Zajicek's sentence to life imprisonment due to the false testimony. In 1917, Governor Dunne granted a full pardon based on his innocence. However, he died just four months after his release because his health had deteriorated in prison. |
| 1918 | New York | Charles Stielow was convicted in 1915 for the shooting murder of 90-year-old Charles B. Phelps and his housekeeper. A week prior to the murders, Phelps had hired Steilow as a farm hand. He and another farm hand, Nelson Green, lived across the street in a tenant house. Steilow initially denied involvement, but later gave a confession to detectives, claiming Green was the shooter, after being pressured and admitting to earlier lies. Green also confessed but implicated Stielow as the shooter. A key piece of evidence at trial was a ballistics testimony of Dr. Albert Hamilton, a self-proclaimed expert who only had a high school education and a phony medical degree. He concluded Stielow’s.22-caliber revolver was the murder weapon without ever test firing it. Despite Stielow’s defense arguing the confession was coerced, he was convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to death, while Green later pleaded guilty to second degree murder to avoid the death penalty. Stielow’s case attracted attention from advocates who believed his confession was coerced due to his mental limitations, leading to repeated execution stays. During this time, Erwin King confessed to being an accomplice with Clarence F. O'Connell in the murders, though King later retracted his statement. Governor Whitman, after initially commuting Stielow’s sentence to life imprisonment due to lingering doubt, funded a reinvestigation led by George H. Bond. Bond's investigation uncovered evidence that Stielow's confession was likely fabricated by detectives and included conclusive ballistics evidence from Captain Henry Jones and Max Poser, a noted expert in microscopy, that proved Stielow’s gun was not the murder weapon. Following a second confession by King that implicated himself and O'Connell, Governor Whitman pardoned them. |
| Year | Details of Exoneration |
| 1930 | Gangi Cero, Massachusetts. Convicted 1927. |
| 1930 | Richard Phillips, Virginia. Convicted 1900, declared insane and sent to a mental hospital in 1901. |
| 1931 | William Harper, Virginia. Convicted 1931. Harper was falsely accused of rape by Dorothy Skaggs, a married white woman. Skaggs's motive for the accusation was allegedly to avoid prosecution under the Mann Act for drinking and dancing with another man. Her story fell apart within days after the trial. The judge ordered a new trial immediately and Harper was acquitted a month later after just 32 minutes of deliberation. Skaggs and a friend who testified for the prosecution, Catherine Ketchum, were both arrested and charged with perjury. On July 2, 1931, Skaggs was found guilty and sentenced to five years in prison. However, she was granted a retrial on appeal and acquitted on September 19, 1931. Ketchum's perjury trial ended in a hung jury. The charges against her were dropped after Skaggs was acquitted. |
| 1933 | Harry Cashin, New York. Convicted 1931. |
| 1933 | Edward Larkman, New York. Convicted 1926, sentence commuted to life in prison by Governor Al Smith in 1927. |
| 1936 | Gus Langley, North Carolina. Convicted 1932, sentence commuted to life in prison by Governor John C. B. Ehringhaus in 1933 and paroled in 1934. |
| 1937 | Eugene Williams, Willie Roberson, Ozie Powell, and Olen Montgomery, Alabama. Convicted 1931. Ozie Powell remained in prison for another conviction until 1943. |
| 1938 | Ayliff Draper, Arkansas. Convicted 1935, sentence commuted to life in prison in 1936. |
| 1938 | Tom Jones, Kentucky. Convicted 1935. |
| 1939 | Thomas Mooney, California. Convicted 1917, sentence commuted to life in prison by Governor William Stephens in 1918. |
| Year | Details of Exoneration |
| 1980 | Jerry Banks, Georgia. Convicted 1975. In 1981, Jerry Banks murdered his wife, Virginia Banks, and then killed himself. Jerry had recently agreed to grant his wife custody of their three children after she filed for divorce. |
| 1980 | Larry Hicks, Indiana. Convicted 1978. |
| 1981 | Michael Linder, South Carolina. Convicted 1979. Linder, a white man charged with murdering a black police officer, was acquitted after arguing self-defense. The prosecution claimed that he had planted the spent cartridges. In 1987, Linder kidnapped, beat, and raped a young woman, then beat a 16-year-old boy who tried to intervene. He then forced the woman into his car and drove away while drunk. Minutes later, he hit a car occupied by three women head-on, killing one. Linder was convicted of kidnapping and assault and sentenced to life in prison. |
| 1981 | Johnny Ross, Louisiana. Convicted 1975, sentence commuted to life in prison in 1977. |
| 1982 | Lawyer Johnson, Massachusetts. Convicted 1972, sentence commuted to life in prison in 1974. |
| 1986 | Anthony Silah Brown, Florida. Convicted 1983. |
| 1986 | Neil Ferber, Pennsylvania. Convicted 1981. |
| 1986 | Clifford Henry Bowen, Oklahoma. Convicted 1981. |
| 1987 |
William Jackson Marion, Nebraska. Executed 1887. The victim was later found alive. |
| 1987 | Joseph Green Brown. Florida. Convicted 1974. In 2012, Brown was charged with the murder of his wife in North Carolina. In 2013, he pleaded guilty to second degree murder and was sentenced to 15 to 19 years in prison. |
| 1987 | Perry Cobb and Darby J. Tillis. Illinois. Convicted 1979. 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. |
| 1987 | Juan Ramos, Florida. Convicted 1983. Acquitted on retrial in April 1987. |
| 1987 | Robert Wallace, Georgia. Convicted 1980. |
| 1987 | Anthony Ray Peek, Florida. Convicted 1978. Peek remains in prison, where he is serving a life sentence for an unrelated 1977 rape conviction. |
| 1988 | Robert Craig Cox, Florida. Convicted 1988. After his acquittal, Cox was returned to California to finish a prison sentence for a 1985 kidnapping. In 1995, Cox was arrested for holding a gun on a 12-year-old girl during a robbery in Texas. He was convicted of aggravated robbery and sentenced to life in prison on account of his three prior felony convictions, one for kidnapping and two for assault with a deadly weapon. Cox remains a suspect in the 1992 disappearances of a mother and two teenage girls, as well as a separate abduction, in Texas. |
| 1988 | Willie Brown and Larry Troy, Florida. Convicted 1983. Brown, who was serving a 20-year sentence for robbery, was released from prison in 1988. Troy, who was serving a 25-year sentence for another murder, was released from prison in 1990. Both men were later sent back to prison for robbery. |
| 1989 | Randall Dale Adams, Texas. Convicted 1977, sentence commuted to life in prison in 1980. He was exonerated as a result of information uncovered by film-maker Errol Morris and presented in an acclaimed 1988 documentary, The Thin Blue Line. Adams was released and all charges were dropped in December 1988. |
| 1989 | James Joseph Richardson, Florida. Convicted 1968, sentence commuted to life in prison in 1972. |
| Year | Details of Exoneration |
| 1990 | Clarence Brandley, Texas. Convicted 1981. |
| 1990 | Dale Johnston, Ohio. Convicted 1984. |
| 1991 | Gary Nelson, Georgia. Convicted 1980. |
| 1991 | Charles Smith, Indiana. Convicted 1983. |
| 1992 | Jay C. Smith, Pennsylvania. Convicted 1986. |
| 1993 | Walter McMillian, Alabama. Convicted 1988. |
| 1993 | Gregory Wilhoit, Oklahoma. Convicted 1987. Along with Ron Williamson, Wilhoit later became the subject of John Grisham's 2006 non-fiction book The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town. |
| 1993 | Kirk Bloodsworth, Maryland. Convicted 1985, sentence commuted to life in prison in 1987. |
| 1993 | Muneer Deeb, Texas. Convicted 1985. |
| 1993 | Larry Hudson, Louisiana. Convicted 1967, sentence commuted to life in prison in 1972. |
| 1993 | Federico Macias, Texas. Convicted 1984. |
| 1993 | James Albert Robison, Arizona. Convicted 1977. |
| 1994 | Andrew Golden, Florida. Convicted 1991. In 1996, Golden was arrested for molesting two girls, ages 8 and 9, in Texas. He pleaded guilty to indecency with a child and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. |
| 1995 | Robert Charles Cruz, Arizona. Convicted 1981. Cruz, an alleged crime boss, disappeared in 1997 and his remains were found in 2007. |
| 1995 | Rolando Cruz and Alejandro Hernandez, Illinois. Convicted 1985, Hernandez's sentence was commuted to 80 years imprisonment in 1991. |
| 1995 | Sabrina Butler, Mississippi. Convicted 1990. |
| 1995 | Adolph Munson, Oklahoma. Convicted 1985. |
| 1996 | Verneal Jimerson and Dennis Williams, Illinois. Convicted 1985. |
| 1996 | Gary Gauger, Illinois. Convicted 1993. |
| 1996 | Joseph Burrows, Illinois. Convicted 1989. After Burrow's exoneration, Gayle Potter and Ralph Frye were sentenced to 5 and 10 years in prison, respectively, for perjury for giving false testimony against him. |
| 1996 | David Grannis, Arizona. Convicted 1991. |
| 1996 | Troy Lee Jones, California. Convicted 1982. |
| 1996 | Carl Lawson, Illinois. Convicted 1990. |
| 1996 | Roberto Miranda, Nevada. Convicted 1982. |
| 1997 | James Willie Cochran, Alabama. Convicted 1977. Convicted of armed robbery and released on time served after the jury concluded that the victim had accidentally been killed by the police, who then framed Cochran for the murder. |
| 1997 | Ricardo Aldape Guerra, Texas. Convicted 1982. |
| 1997 | Benjamin Harris, Washington. Convicted 1984. |
| 1997 | Robert Earl Hayes, Florida. Convicted 1991. In 2003, Hayes was arrested and charged with the 1987 murder of Leslie Dickenson in New York. Dickenson's death was initially ruled a suicide, but the case was reinvestigated after the 1990 murder in Florida that sent Hayes to death row. In 2004, Hayes pleaded guilty to manslaughter, arson, and burglary, and was sentenced to 15 to 45 years in prison. Florida prosecutors urged the New York Parole Board to not release Hayes, saying there was enough evidence to conclude that he was likely guilty of the 1990 murder even though there wasn't enough for a conviction. Hayes sought DNA testing to prove his innocence. However, in 2022, the results of the DNA tests proved his guilt. |
| 1997 | Christopher McCrimmon, Arizona. Convicted 1993. McCrimmon remained in prison until 2020 for attempted murder, armed robbery, aggravated assault, and burglary. |
| 1997 | Larry Randal Padgett, Alabama. Convicted 1992. |
| 1998 | Curtis Kyles, Louisiana. Convicted 1984. |
| 1999 | Shareef Cousin, Louisiana. Convicted 1996. Remained in prison until 2005 for related robbery convictions. |
| 1999 | Anthony Porter, Illinois. Convicted 1983. In 2005, Porter lost a civil case after a jury found that his original conviction was justified. The 2014 documentary A Murder in the Park argued that Porter, who had been identified as the murderer by six eyewitnesses, was guilty, while Alstory Simon, who was initially said to be "real killer" but later exonerated, was framed by Professor David Protess and his team from Northwestern University, who sought to undermine the death penalty in Illinois rather than learn the actual truth about the murders. Both witnesses, Simon's estranged wife and a paid actor, were paid by Protess and his team. Simon's estranged wife later recanted her statements. |
| 1999 | 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. |
| 1999 | Ronald Jones, Illinois. Convicted 1989. |
| 1999 | Clarence Richard Dexter Jr., Missouri. Convicted 1991. |
| 1999 | Alfred Rivera, North Carolina. Convicted 1997. In 2001, Rivera was sentenced to life in prison for related federal drug trafficking charges. The life sentence was imposed on account of his prior convictions. Rivera was released from prison under the First Step Act in 2019. |
| 1999 | Steven Smith, Illinois. Convicted 1986. |
| Year | Details of Exoneration |
| 2000 | Earl Washington Jr., Virginia. Convicted 1984, sentence commuted to life in prison by Governor Douglas Wilder in 1994. Remained in prison until 2001 for burglary and malicious wounding. |
| 2000 | Frank Lee Smith, Florida. Convicted 1985. Exoneration was posthumous for Smith, who died in prison in 2000, before being exonerated later that year. Smith had become a suspect since he had two prior homicide convictions, the first for manslaughter when he was 13 and the second for first degree murder when he was 18, and was on parole for his second conviction at the time of the murder. The real killer was later determined to be serial killer Eddie Mosley. |
| 2000 | Eric Clemmons, Missouri. Convicted 1987. |
| 2000 | Hubert Geralds Jr., Illinois. Convicted 1997. Geralds, a serial killer, remained on death row for five other murders, but had his sentence commuted to life in prison in 2003. |
| 2000 | Michael Graham, Louisiana. Convicted 1987. |
| 2000 | Joseph Green, Florida. Convicted 1993. |
| 2000 | Oscar Morris, California. Convicted 1983. |
| 2000 | William Nieves, Pennsylvania. Convicted 1994. |
| 2001 | John Snowden, Maryland, Executed 1919. Executed 1944. Posthumously pardoned. |
| 2001 | Charles Irvin Fain, Idaho. Convicted 1983. |
| 2001 | Albert Burrell, Louisiana. Convicted 1987. |
| 2001 | Gary Drinkard, Alabama. Convicted 1995. |
| 2001 | Louis Greco, Peter Limone, and Enrico Tameleo, Massachusetts. Convicted 1968, sentences commuted to life in prison in 1972. Exonerations were posthumous for Tameleo and Greco, who died in prison in 1985 and 1995, respectively. |
| 2001 | Peter Limone, Massachusetts. Convicted 1968, sentence commuted to life in prison in 1972. |
| 2001 | Joaquin Jose Martinez, Florida. Convicted 1997. |
| 2001 | Donald Paradis, Idaho. Convicted 1981, sentence commuted to life in prison by Governor Phil Batt in 1996. |
| 2002 | Juan Roberto Melendez-Colon, Florida. Convicted 1984. |
| 2002 | Ray Krone, Arizona. Convicted 1992, sentence commuted to life in prison in 1996. |
| 2002 | Thomas Kimbell, Pennsylvania. Convicted 1998. |
| 2002 | Andre Minnitt, Arizona. Convicted 1993. Minnitt remained in prison until 2025 for attempted murder, armed robbery, aggravated assault, and burglary. |
| 2002 | Larry Osborne, Kentucky. Convicted 1999. |
| 2003 | Nicholas Yarris, Pennsylvania. Convicted 1982. |
| 2003 | John Thompson, Louisiana. Convicted 1985. |
| 2003 | Joseph Amrine, Missouri. Convicted 1986. |
| 2003 | Madison Hobley, Illinois. Convicted 1990, pardoned on account of confession being obtained under torture. |
| 2003 | Rudolph Holton, Florida. Convicted 1986. |
| 2003 | Stanley Howard, Illinois. Convicted 1987, pardoned on account of confession being obtained under torture. Howard remained in prison for rape and kidnapping until 2023. He maintained his innocence for these lesser crimes, but DNA tests confirmed his guilt. |
| 2003 | Timothy Howard, Ohio. Convicted 1977, sentence commuted to life in prison in 1978. |
| 2003 | Gary Lamar James, Ohio. Convicted 1977, sentence commuted to life in prison in 1978. |
| 2003 | Leroy Orange, Illinois. Convicted 1985, pardoned on account of confession being obtained under torture. |
| 2003 | Aaron Patterson, Illinois. Convicted 1989, pardoned on account of confession being obtained under torture. |
| 2003 | Lemuel Prion, Arizona. Convicted 1999. |
| 2003 | Wesley Quick, Alabama. Convicted 1997. Quick remains in prison, where he is serving a 33-year sentence for three burglary convictions. |
| 2004 | Alan Gell, North Carolina. Convicted 1995. |
| 2004 | Ernest Willis, Texas. Convicted 1987. |
| 2004 | Ryan Matthews, Louisiana. Convicted 1999. |
| 2004 | Laurence Adams, Massachusetts. Convicted 1974, sentence commuted to life in prison in 1975. |
| 2004 | Dan L. Bright, Louisiana. Convicted 1996. |
| 2004 | Patrick Croy, California. Convicted 1979, released in 1990 after his most serious convictions were overturned. |
| 2004 | Gordon Steidl, Illinois. Convicted 1987, sentence commuted to life in prison in 1999. |
| 2005 | Derrick Jamison, Ohio. Convicted 1985. |
| 2005 | Harold C. Wilson, Pennsylvania. Convicted 1989. |
| 2007 | Curtis McCarty, Oklahoma. Convicted 1986. |
| 2007 | Jonathon Hoffman, North Carolina. Convicted 1996. |
| 2007 | Michael Lee McCormick, Tennessee. Convicted 1987. |
| 2008 | Kennedy Brewer, Mississippi. Convicted 1995. |
| 2008 | Glen Edward Chapman, North Carolina. Convicted 1995. |
| 2008 | Levon Jones, North Carolina. Convicted 1993. |
| 2008 | Michael Blair, Texas. Convicted 1994. Blair remains in prison, where he is serving four life sentences for raping four children, including those of a witness who testified against him in the murder case. Blair has admitted his guilt in the rapes. |
| 2009 | Herman Lindsey, Florida. Convicted 2006. |
| 2009 | Nathson Fields, Illinois. Convicted 1986, sentence commuted to life in prison in 2003. |
| 2009 | Paul House, Tennessee. Convicted 1986. |
| 2009 | Daniel Wade Moore, Alabama. Convicted 2002. |
| 2009 | Ronald Kitchen, Illinois. Convicted 1988, sentence commuted to life in prison in 2003. |
| 2009 | Michael Toney, Texas. Convicted 1999. Toney died in a car accident on October 3, 2009, just one month and a day after his exoneration. |
| 2009 | Yancy Douglas, Oklahoma. Convicted 1995. |
| 2009 | Paris Powell, Oklahoma. Convicted 1997. |
| 2009 | Robert Springsteen, Texas. Convicted 2001, sentence commuted to life in prison in 2005. |
| Year | Details of Exoneration |
| 2010 | Anthony Charles Graves, Texas. Convicted 1994. |
| 2011 | Joe Arridy, Colorado. Executed 1939. Posthumously pardoned. |
| 2011 | Gussie Vann, Tennessee. Convicted 1984. Vann remains in prison, where he is serving a 50-year sentence for two related aggravated rape convictions. |
| 2012 | Damon Thibodeaux, Louisiana. Convicted 1997. |
| 2012 | Seth Penalver, Florida. Convicted 1994. |
| 2012 | Joe D'Ambrosio, Ohio. Convicted 1989. |
| 2012 | Dale Johnston, Ohio. Convicted 1984, case dismissed in 1990. |
| 2013 | Haywood Patterson, Charlie Weems, and Andy Wright, Alabama. Convicted 1931, sentences commuted to 75 to 99 years in prison in 1937/1938. Weems was paroled in 1943, Wright was paroled in 1944, and Patterson escaped from prison in 1949. After violating his parole, Wright was returned to prison until 1950. Patterson was later found living in Michigan, but the governor refused to extradite him. However, in 1951, Patterson was convicted of manslaughter for killing a man during a fight. He was sentenced to six to 15 years in prison and died in prison in 1952. |
| 2013 | Reginald Griffin, Missouri. Convicted 1983, sentence commuted to life in prison in 1993. |
| 2014 | Glenn Ford, Louisiana. Convicted 1984. |
| 2014 | Carl Dausch, Florida. Convicted 2011. Dausch was serving a 60-year sentence in Indiana for 1990 convictions for rape, criminal confinement, and battery when he was tied to the scene of the murder, which was committed in 1987, with DNA on a cigarette found in the victim's car, albeit the Supreme Court of Florida found that the evidence was still insufficient. Dausch remained in prison for his other crimes until 2018. |
| 2014 | Henry McCollum and Leon Brown, North Carolina. Convicted 1984, Brown's sentence commuted to life in prison in 1992. |
| 2014 | Ricky Jackson, Ronnie Bridgeman, and Wiley Bridgeman, Ohio. Convicted 1975, Jackson's sentences commuted to life in prison in 1977/1978. Ronnie Bridgeman had been paroled in 2003. |
| 2014 | George Stinney Jr., South Carolina. Executed 1944. Conviction overturned posthumously. |
| 2015 | Debra Milke, Arizona. Convicted 1990. In 2020, Milke lost a civil suit claiming wrongful conviction. A federal judge found that Milke had repeatedly tampered with documents in the case. She had destroyed thousands of documents, including a journal written shortly after her conviction. The ruling makes it extremely unlikely that Milke will receive any compensation for her imprisonment. One of Milke's alleged accomplices has maintained that she was the mastermind of the murder for which she was originally convicted. |
| 2015 | Anthony Ray Hinton, Alabama. Convicted 1985. |
| 2015 | George Spencer, Connecticut. Executed 1642. Conviction overturned posthumously. |
| 2015 | Willie Manning, Mississippi. Convicted 1996. Manning remains on death row for a double murder. |
| 2015 | Alfred Brown, Texas. Convicted 2005. |
| 2015 | Lawrence William Lee, Georgia. Convicted 1987. Lee remains in prison, where he is serving a life sentence for another murder. |
| 2015 | Derral Wayne Hodgkins, Florida. Convicted 2013. |
| 2017 | Isaiah McCoy, Delaware. Convicted 2010, sentence commuted to life in prison in 2016. In 2025, McCoy was sentenced to life in prison for federal sex trafficking charges in Hawaii. |
| 2017 | Rodricus Crawford, Louisiana. Convicted 2013. |
| 2017 | Ralph Wright, Florida. Convicted 2014. |
| 2017 | Rickey Newman, Arkansas. Convicted 2002. |
| 2017 | Gabriel Solache, Illinois. Convicted 2000, sentence commuted to life in prison in 2003. |
| 2017 | Robert Miller, Oklahoma. Convicted 1988, acquitted in 1998. |
| 2018 | Vicente Benavides, California. Convicted 1993. |
| 2018 | Clemente Aguirre-Jarquin, Florida. Convicted 2006. |
| 2019 | Paul Browning, Nevada. Convicted 1986. |
| 2019 | Clifford Williams, Florida. Convicted 1976, sentence commuted to life in prison in 1980. |
| 2019 | Charles Finch, North Carolina. Convicted 1976, sentence commuted to life in prison in 1977. |
| 2019 | Christopher Williams, Pennsylvania. Convicted 1993. |