This list contains names of people who were found guilty of capital crimes and placed on death row

Death row

Death row signifies the place, often a section of a prison, that houses individuals awaiting execution. The term is also used figuratively to describe the state of awaiting execution , even in places where no special facility or separate unit for condemned inmates exists.After individuals are found...

 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 sentenced 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

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 extralegal groups or courts, for example as often occurs in cases of sentences of stoning
   Stoning
   Stoning, or lapidation, is a form of capital punishment whereby a group throws stones at a person until the person dies. No individual among the group can be identified as the one who kills the subject, yet everyone involved plainly bears some degree of moral culpability. This is in contrast to the...
   
   .

1980-1989

1983

• Menda Sakae (Convicted 1949).

1984

• Taniguchi Shigeyoshi.
• Saito Yukio.

1989

• Akahori Masao.

2000-2007

• Zahid Mahmood Akhtar.

2002.

• Arshad Javed (Sentenced 1992).

2006.

• Mirza Tahir Hussain
  Mirza Tahir Hussain
  Mirza Tahir Hussain is a British man released on 17 November 2006 after spending 18 years on death row in Pakistan for the murder of a taxicab driver named Jamshed Khan in 1988, a crime which he says he committed in self-defence, as Khan pulled out a gun and tried to sexually assault him. In the...
  
  .

United Kingdom

1965 Death penalty for murder suspended when evidence of wrongful executions surfaced.

1966

• Timothy Evans
  Timothy Evans
  Timothy John Evans was a Welshman accused of murdering his wife and daughter at their residence in Notting Hill, London in November 1949. In January 1950 Evans was tried and convicted of the murder of his daughter, and he was sentenced to death by hanging...
  
   (posthumous, executed).

1968

• Mahmood Hussein Mattan
  Mahmood Hussein Mattan
  Mahmood Hussein Mattan was a Somali former merchant seaman who was wrongfully convicted of the murder of Lily Volpert on 6 March 1952. The murder took place in the Docklands area of Cardiff, Wales and Mattan was mainly convicted on the evidence of a single prosecution witness...
  
   (posthumous, executed).
• Derek Bentley
  Derek Bentley
  Derek William Bentley was a British teenager hanged for the murder of a police officer, committed in the course of a burglary attempt. The murder of the police officer was committed by a friend and accomplice of Bentley's, Christopher Craig, then aged 16. Bentley was convicted as a party to the...
  
   (posthumous, executed).

1969

• Death penalty for murder abolished.

1973 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 them being carried out. One Provisional Irish Republican Army

Pira

Pira may refer to:* Pira, Victoria, locality in Victoria, Australia* Pira, Tarragona, Spain* Pira District, Huaraz Province, Peru* Pira, Peru, capital of Pira District* Provisional Irish Republican Army...

 member 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.

1970-1979

1973.

• 1. David Keaton Florida (Keaton v. State, 273 So.2d 385 (1973)). Convicted 1971.

1974

• 2. Samuel A. Poole North Carolina (State v. Poole, 203 S.E.2d 786 (N.C. 1974)). Convicted 1973.

1975.

• 3. Wilbert Lee Florida (Pitts v. State 247 So.2d 53 (Fla. 1971), overturned and released by pardon in 1975). Convicted 1963.

• 4. Freddie Pitts Florida (Pitts v. State 247 So.2d 53 (Fla. 1971), overturned and released by pardon in 1975). Convicted 1965.

• 5. James Creamer
  Marietta Seven
  The Marietta seven were defendants on a murder charge who were subsequently exonerated. One, James Creamer, had been sentenced to death, and the others to life imprisonment....
  
   Georgia (Emmett v. Ricketts, 397 F. Supp 1025 (N.D. Ga. 1975)). Convicted 1973.

• 6. Christopher Spicer North Carolina (State v. Spicer, 204 SE 2d 641 (1974)). Convicted 1973.

1976

• 7. Thomas Gladish New Mexico. Convicted 1974.

• 8. Richard Greer New Mexico. Convicted 1974.

• 9. Ronald Keine New Mexico. Convicted 1974.

• 10. Clarence Smith New Mexico. Convicted 1974.

1977.

• 11. Delbert Tibbs
  Delbert Tibbs
  Delbert Tibbs is an American man who was wrongfully convicted of murder and rape in 1974 and sentenced to death, and was later exonerated. He later became a writer and anti-death penalty activist.-Early life and trial:...
  
   Florida. Convicted 1974.

1978.

• 12. Earl Charles Georgia. Convicted 1975.

• 13. Jonathan Treadway Arizona. Convicted 1975.

1979.

• 14. Gary Beeman Ohio. Convicted 1976.

1980-1989

1980

• 15. Jerry Banks.
• 16. Larry Hicks.

1981

• 17. Charles Ray Giddens.
• 18. Michael Linder.
• 19. Johnny Ross.
• 20. Ernest (Shuhaa) Graham.

1982

• 21. Annibal Jaramillo.
• 22. Lawyer Johnson Massachusetts (Commonwealth v. Johnson, 429 N.E.2d 726 (1982)). Convicted 1971.

1985

• 23. Larry Fisher.

1986

• 24. Anthony Brown.
• 25. Neil Ferber.
• 26. Clifford Henry Bowen.

1987

• 27. Joseph Green Brown.
• 28. Perry Cobb.
• 29. Darby (Williams) Tillis.
• 30. Vernon McManus.
• 31. Anthony Ray Peek.
• 32. Juan Ramos.
• 33. Robert Wallace.

1988

• 34. Richard Neal Jones.
• 35. Willie Brown.
• 36. Larry Troy.

1989

• 37. Randall Dale Adams
  Randall Dale Adams
  Randall Dale Adams was wrongly convicted of murdering police officer Robert W. Wood, and was subsequently sentenced to death. He served more than 12 years in prison, at one point coming within 72 hours of being put to death...
  
   Texas (Ex Parte Adams, 768 S.W.2d 281) (Tex. Crim App. 1989). Convicted 1977.
• 38. Robert Cox.
• 39. James Richardson.
• On April 8, 2010, former death row inmate Timothy B. Hennis, once exonerated in 1989, was reconvicted of a triple murder, thereby dropping him from the list of those exonerated. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/09/us/09soldier.html?scp=1&sq=timothy%20hennis&st=cse Sentenced to death by military court-martial 15 April 2010

1990-1999

1990

• 40. Clarence Brandley
  Clarence Brandley
  Clarence Brandley is an African-American who, in 1981, while a janitor at a high school in Conroe, Texas, was wrongly convicted of the rape and murder of Cheryl Dee Ferguson, a 16 year-old student. Brandley was held for nine years on death row...
  
   Texas (Ex Parte Brandley, 781 S.W.2d 886 (Tex. Crim App. 1989). Convicted 1981.
• 41. John C. Skelton.
• 42. Dale Johnston.
• 43. Jimmy Lee Mathers.

1991

• 44. Gary Nelson.
• 45. Bradley P. Scott.
• 46. Charles Smith.

1992

• 47. Jay C. Smith Pennsylvania. Convicted 1986.

1993

• 48. Kirk Bloodsworth
  Kirk Bloodsworth
  Kirk Noble Bloodsworth is the first American sentenced to death row who was exonerated by DNA fingerprinting, although his death sentence had already been commuted to two consecutive life sentences by the time his exoneration based upon DNA evidence was in the works.An honorably discharged former...
  
   Maryland. Convicted 1984. Exonerated 1993; first prisoner to be exonerated by DNA evidence. Serving life in prison when exonerated, as earlier death sentence was overturned.
• 49. Federico M. Macias.
• 50. Walter McMillan.
• 51. Gregory R. Wilhoit Oklahoma. Convicted 1987. Along with Ron Williamson, Wilhoit later became the subject of John Grisham
  John Grisham
  John Ray Grisham, Jr. is an American lawyer and author, best known for his popular legal thrillers.John Grisham graduated from Mississippi State University before attending the University of Mississippi School of Law in 1981 and practiced criminal law for about a decade...
  
  's 2006 non-fiction book The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town.
• 52. James Robison.
• 53. Muneer Deeb.

1994

• 54. Andrew Golden.

1995

• 55. Adolph Munson.
• 56. Robert Charles Cruz.
• 57. Rolando Cruz.
• 58. Alejandro Hernández.
• 59. Sabrina Butler.

1996

• 60. Joseph Burrows. Joseph Burrows was released from death row after his attorney Kathleen Zellner
  Kathleen Zellner
  Kathleen Zellner is an American lawyer.-Early life:Zellner was born in Midland, Texas. She is the second oldest of eight children. Her father, Owen Daniel Thomas, was an engineer and geologist for Phillips Petroleum in charge of its worldwide production and exploration...
  
   persuaded the real killer to confess at the post-conviction hearing.
• 61. Verneal Jimerson.
• 62. Dennis Williams.
• 63. Roberto Miranda.
• 64. Gary Gauger
  Gary Gauger
  Gary Gauger is a formerly imprisoned convict, who was falsely accused and convicted of the murders of his parents, Morris and Ruth Gauger, and later exonerated. Following the murder on April 8, 1993, Gauger ultimately spent nearly two years in prison and 9 months on Death Row before being released...
  
  
• 65. Troy Lee Jones.
• 66. Carl Lawson.
• 67. David Wayne Grannis.

1997

• 68. Ricardo Aldape Guerra.
• 69. Benjamin Harris.
• 70. Robert Hayes.
• 71. Christopher McCrimmon.
• 72. Randall Padgett.
• It is later revealed, through additional research by Prof. Samuel Gross of the University of Michigan, that though James Bo Cochran was acquitted of murder, he did plead guilty to a robbery charge in an agreement made with prosecutors prior to his release. Therefore, Cochran is no longer on the list of those exonerated from death row. http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/revision-list-exonerated-individuals

1998

• 73. Robert Lee Miller, Jr.
• 74. Curtis Kyles.

1999

• 75. Shareef Cousin
  Shareef Cousin
  Shareef Cousin was convicted and sentenced to death at the age of 16 in 1996. He became one of the youngest condemned convicts to be put on death row in the United States...
  
   Louisiana (Louisiana v. Cousin, 710 So. 2d 1065 (1998)). Convicted 1996.
• 76. Anthony Porter
  Anthony Porter
  Anthony Porter was a prisoner on death row whose conviction was overturned in 1999 due to the investigation of two Northwestern University School of Law professors and students from the Medill School of Journalism, and is notable for being an exonerated death row inmate that was once 50 hours away...
  
   Illinois. Convicted 1983.
• 77. Steven Smith.
• 78. Ronald Williamson
  Ron Williamson
  Ronald "Ron" Keith Williamson was a former minor league baseball catcher/pitcher who was one of two men wrongly convicted in 1988 in Oklahoma for the rape and murder of Debra Sue "Debbie" Carter. His friend Dennis Fritz was sentenced to life imprisonment, while Williamson was sentenced to death...
  
   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.
• 79. Ronald Jones.
• 80. Clarence Dexter, Jr.
• 81. Warren Douglas Manning.
• 82. Alfred Rivera.

2000-2009

2000

• 83. Steve Manning.
• 84. Eric Clemmons.
• 85. Joseph Nahume Green.
• 86. Earl Washington
  Earl Washington
  Earl Washington Jr. is a former Virginia death-row inmate, charged in 1982 with rape and murder. Washington, with an IQ estimated at 69, confessed to the crime, but apparently only after being coerced by investigators. In 1994, DNA evidence indicated that he was not responsible for the crimes for...
  
   Virginia (pardoned). Convicted 1994 (1984, without life sentence).
• 87. William Nieves.
• 88. Frank Lee Smith (died prior to exoneration).
• 89. Michael Graham.
• 90. Albert Burrell.
• 91. Oscar Lee Morris.

2001

• 92. Peter Limone.
• 93. Gary Drinkard.
• 94. Joachin José Martínez.
• 95. Jeremy Sheets.
• 96. Charles Fain.

2002

• 97. Juan Roberto Melendez-Colon
  Juan Roberto Melendez-Colon
  Juan Roberto Melendez-Colon is a public speaker and human rights activist who was wrongly convicted of murder and spent over 17 years on Death Row...
  
   Florida. Convicted 1984.
• 98. Ray Krone
  Ray Krone
  Ray Krone is an American who was wrongfully convicted of murder. Krone holds the distinction of being the 98th inmate exonerated from death row since the death sentence was reinstated in 1976....
  
   Arizona (State v. Krone, 897 P.2d 621 (Ariz. 1995) (en banc)). Convicted 1992.
• 99. Thomas Kimbell, Jr.
• 100. Larry Osborne.

2003

• 101. Aaron Patterson.
• 102. Madison Hobley.
• 103. Leroy Orange
  Leroy Orange
  Leroy Orange was born on 20 July 1950 in Chicago, Illinois. On 12 January 1984 Orange was arrested along with his half-brother, Leonard Kidd, for the murder of four persons at 1553 W 91st Street in Chicago's South side Brainerd neighborhood based on false accusations by Kidd.Orange...
  
  .
• 104. Stanley Howard.
• 105. Rudolph Holton.
• 106. Lemuel Prion.
• 107. Wesley Quick.
• 108. John Thompson.
• 109. Timothy Howard Ohio. Convicted 1976.
• 110. Gary Lamar James Ohio. Convicted 1976.
• 111. Joseph Amrine.
• 112. Nicholas Yarris Pennsylvania (Pennsylvania v. Yarris, No 690-OF1982, Court of Common Pleas, Delaware County, September 3, 2003. Order vacating conviction). Convicted 1982.

2004

• 113. Alan Gell
  Alan Gell
  James Alan Gell, from North Carolina, United States, was sentenced to death for the crime of first degree murder. He was freed from death row when it was determined that the prosecution had withheld significant exculpatory evidence and impeachment evidence....
  
  .
• 114. Gordon Steidl.
• 115. Laurence Adams.
• 116. Dan L. Bright.
• 117. Ryan Matthews.
• 118. Ernest Ray Willis.

2005

• 119. Derrick Jamison.
• 120. Harold Wilson.

2006

• 121. John Ballard.

2007

• 122. Curtis McCarty.
• 123. Michael McCormick.
• 124. Jonathon Hoffman.

2008

• 125. Kennedy Brewer Mississippi. Convicted 1995.
• 126. Glen Edward Chapman North Carolina. Convicted 1995.
• 127. Levon "Bo" Jones North Carolina. Convicted 1993.
• 128. Michael Blair Texas.

2009

• 129. Nathson Fields Illinois. Convicted 1986.
• 130. Paul House Tennessee. Convicted 1986.
• 131. Daniel Wade Moore Alabama. Convicted 2002.
• 132. Ronald Kitchen Illinois. Convicted 1988.
• 133. Herman Lindsey Florida. Convicted 2006.
• 134. Michael Toney
  Michael Roy Toney
  Michael Roy Toney in 1999 was falsely charged and convicted for a bombing that killed two males and one female in Lake Worth, Texas in 1985. The incident also injured another male and female...
  
   Texas. Convicted 1999. (Toney later died in a car accident on October 3, 2009, just one month and a day after his exoneration.).
• 135. Yancy Douglas Oklahoma. Convicted 1997.
• 136. Paris Powell Oklahoma. Convicted 1997.
• 137. Robert Springsteen Texas. Convicted 2001.

2010-2019

2010

• 138. Anthony Graves Texas. Convicted 1994.

2011

• 139. Gussie Vann Tennessee. Convicted 1994.

Canada

• Between 1879 and 1960, Canada commuted 438 death sentences. One notorious case at the time was that of Angelina Napolitano
  Angelina Napolitano
  Angelina Napolitano or Angelina Neapolitano was an immigrant to Canada who murdered her abusive husband in 1911, igniting a public debate about domestic violence and the death penalty. She was the first woman in Canada to use the battered woman defence on a murder charge...
  
  , a pregnant, abused wife who became the first person in Canada to use the battered woman defense for murder after she axed her husband to death. Although she was initially sentenced to hang, the federal cabinet
  Cabinet of Canada
  The Cabinet of Canada is a body of ministers of the Crown that, along with the Canadian monarch, and within the tenets of the Westminster system, forms the government of Canada...
  
   eventually commuted
  Commutation of sentence
  Commutation of sentence involves the reduction of legal penalties, especially in terms of imprisonment. Unlike a pardon, a commutation does not nullify the conviction and is often conditional. Clemency is a similar term, meaning the lessening of the penalty of the crime without forgiving the crime...
  
   her sentence to life imprisonment
  Life imprisonment
  Life imprisonment is a sentence of imprisonment for a serious crime under which the convicted person is to remain in jail for the rest of his or her life...
  
  .
• Previous Canadian government policy was that in all but exceptional cases, Canada will not extradite accused murderers unless the death sentence will not be imposed, or if imposed, not carried out. This diplomatic commutation arrangement stems from the 2001 case of United States v. Burns
  United States v. Burns
  United States v. Burns [2001] 1 S.C.R. 283, 2001 SCC 7, was a decision by the Supreme Court of Canada in which it was found that extradition of individuals to places where they may face the death penalty is a breach of fundamental justice under section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms...
  
  . Sebastian Burns. In 2008, the incumbent government announced that it would no longer participate in clemency dealings. The decision was met with criticism from human rights activists and Canadian citizens.

See also

• Wrongful execution
  Wrongful execution
  Wrongful execution is a miscarriage of justice occurring when an innocent person is put to death by capital punishment, the "death penalty." Cases of wrongful execution are cited as an argument by the opponents of capital punishment....
  
  
• Death row
  Death row
  Death row signifies the place, often a section of a prison, that houses individuals awaiting execution. The term is also used figuratively to describe the state of awaiting execution , even in places where no special facility or separate unit for condemned inmates exists.After individuals are found...
  
  
• List of proven miscarriages of justice
• List of United States death row inmates

External links

• Death Penalty Information Center List of Exonerated Death Row Inmates http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?scid=6&did=110
• National Review article critical of the DPIC 'roll of death row innocents' Bad List: A suspect roll of Death Row 'innocents'
• Innocence Project - 190+ Individuals Exonerated by DNA Evidence http://www.innocenceproject.org/know/Browse-Profiles.php
• Center on Wrongful Convictions http://www.law.northwestern.edu/depts/clinic/wrongful/exonerations/States.htm
• Death Penalty Information Center, Facts about exonerations http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?did=412
• Landmark Study of death penalty reversals. Justice Denied magazine.
• The Innocents Database of wrongly convicted people, including more than 900 wrongly convicted of murder.
• Returning to Life After DNA Exoneration