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MAIN FINDINGS
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Exonerations. The Registry recorded 147 exonerations that occurred in 2024.
Race and wrongful convictions. Seventy-eight percent of exonerations last year
(115/147) were people of color. Nearly 60 percent of the exonerees (87/147) were Black.
For a larger discussion on the role of race in wrongful convictions, please see our 2022 report on the subject.
Years Lost to Wrongful Imprisonment. Persons exonerated in 2024 lost an average of 13.5 years to wrongful imprisonment for crimes they did not commit—over 1,980 years in total.
Compensation. Payments in the form of state compensation or civil damage awards to exonerees since 1989 now exceed $4.6 billion.
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CONTRIBUTING FACTORS
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Official Misconduct: We know of official misconduct in 104, or 71% of exonerations that occurred in 2024. Most of these cases involved more than one kind of misconduct, such as the failure to disclose exculpatory evidence to the defense (95 cases), witness tampering (43 cases), perjury by an official actor (39 cases), knowing presentation of perjured testimony (11), police misconduct in interrogations (9), prosecutorial dishonesty
in court (8), or forensic misconduct (5).
Mistaken Witness Identification: Thirty-eight exonerations in 2024 (26%) were for convictions based at least in part on mistaken witness identifications.
False Confessions: Twenty-two exonerations (15%) involved false confessions.
Perjury or False Accusation: One hundred and six cases (72%) included perjury or other false accusations.
False or Misleading Forensic Evidence: Forty-two cases (29%) involved forensic evidence that was false or misleading.
Ineffective Assistance of Counsel: Forty-eight cases (33%) included inadequate legal defense.
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GROUP EXONERATIONS
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We published two cases, representing 54 individuals, in our Groups Registry. In each of these cases, the exonerations are tied together by a pattern of systematic official misconduct either in the investigation and prosecution of these cases or committed by an official actor involved in the case.
The National Registry of Exonerations added 196 exonerations in 2024. We recorded 147 exonerations that occurred in 2024, and we added 49 exonerations that happened in previous years.
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Throughout this report, we’ve highlighted several exonerations from the past year. They are remarkable accounts of these individuals’ persistence and determination in the face of injustice. All told, the National Registry of Exonerations has recorded 3,646 exonerations in the United States from 1989 through the end of 2024.
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KERRY MAX COOK
STATE: Texas | Crime: Murder
CONVICTED: 1978 |Exonerated: 2024
CONTRIBUTING FACTORS: Mistaken Witness
ID, False or Misleading Forensic Evidence,
Perjury or False Accusation, Official Misconduct
Kerry Max Cook was convicted twice and twice sentenced to death for the murder of a young woman in Tyler, Texas, in 1978. After winning a new trial in 1997, Cook agreed to plead guilty in 1999 to murder and be released on time served. Two months later, DNA results tied the woman’s former lover to genetic evidence found in her underwear. For the next 25 years, Cook sought to clear his name and became a leading voice for the wrongfully convicted. On June 19, 2024, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled that Cook’s conviction should be vacated on the grounds of actual innocence. “Several actions of the State go beyond gross negligence and reach into the realm of intentional deception against the tribunal,” the ruling said. “Cook spent close to a decade and half on death row from the very beginning based on a web of fabricated testimony and misrepresentations.”
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SANDRA HEMME
STATE: Missouri | CRIME: Murder
CONVICTED: 1981 | EXONERATED: 2024
CONTRIBUTING FACTORS: False Confession, Official
Misconduct, Inadequate Legal Defense
On December 10, 1980, 20-year-old Sandra Hemme falsely confessed to a murder in St. Joseph, Missouri. She was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. When her case was dismissed on December 3, 2024, she had served more than 43 years in prison, the longest amount of time for an exonerated woman in U.S. history. The conviction was vacated based on the discovery of exculpatory evidence that the prosecution had not disclosed at the time that Hemme pled guilty. A post-conviction investigation showed that Hemme’s defense attorney at the time of conviction had failed to investigate Hemme’s history of mental health issues to show that her confession was false.
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CHARLOTTE PLEYTEZ
STATE: California | CRIME: Murder
CONVICTED: 2009 | Exonerated: 2024
CONTRIBUTING FACTORS: Mistaken
Witness Identification, False or Misleading
Forensic Evidence
Charlotte Pleytez was 20 years old when she was accused of committing a murder in the West Hollywood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. In 2009, she and Lombardo Palacios, who was 15 at the time of the crime, were convicted based on a mistaken witness identification. Pleytez and Palacios were sentenced to 50 years to life in prison. They were exonerated in December 2024 based on evidence that identified the real perpetrators of the crime.
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GILBERT MERRITT III
STATE: Virginia | CRIME: Murder
CONVICTED: 2001 | EXONERATED: 2024
CONTRIBUTING FACTORS: Perjury or False
Accusation, Official Misconduct
No eyewitnesses placed Gilbert Merritt III at the convenience store in Norfolk, Virginia, where a murder occurred in 2001, and there was no physical evidence connecting him to the crime. But an acquaintance of Merritt falsely testified that Merritt had confessed his involvement and said it was in retaliation for the shooting of his brother. After Merritt’s conviction, the witness recanted and said she was coerced into testifying by Detective Glenn Ford, who was also the lead detective in the wrongful convictions of the so-called Norfolk Four and was convicted of perjury and other charges in 2010. Merritt first received a conditional pardon by Governor Ralph Northam in 2022, and was fully exonerated in February 2024, after the Virginia Supreme Court affirmed the Norfolk City Circuit Court’s order granting his habeas petition."
The entire Annual Report can be read at:
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL:
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985
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FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
