Always happy to oblige. Every case I note below, save the very last one, involves a death penalty conviction being overturned because DNA evidence, unavailable at the time of trial, showed the innocence of the accused. Note that for the crimes that don’t involve genetic material left as evidence, DNA is not available to help a wrongful conviction.
For sources, see Radelet, Lofquist and Bedau, “Prisoners Released From Death Rows since 1970 Because of Doubts About their Guilt,” in: Thomas M. Cooley Law Review 13(3), 907 (1996)). Also In Spite of Innocence, Northeastern University Press, 1992.
So far as I’m aware, these original sources are not available on the Internet. Related documents, however, may be found here. Specific cases are summarized below:
Rolando Cruz, Alejandro Hernandez, Verneal Jimerson and Dennis Williams, Illinois
Conviction 1985
Released 1995
These four men were sentenced to death for the murder of Jeanine Nicarico in 1983. Hernandez was re-tried in 1990, but the trial ended in a hung jury. A third trial in 1991 resulted in a conviction and an 80 year prison sentence. The conviction was overturned by the Illinois Supreme Court in January, 1995. Only his own indirect statements, not any direct physical evidence, linked Hernandez, who is borderline retarded, to the killing. He was released on bond, and charges were subsequently dropped on Dec. 8, 1995. The man who has confessed to the murder of Jeanine Nicarico, and whose DNA has been linked to the crime, has not been charged in the case. The breakthrough for all four men came when a journalism professor, David Protess, assigned the case to some of his students. They reinvestigated, discovered that the wrong men had been convicted, and supported their findings with DNA testing.
Dennis Williams, Illinois
Conviction 1979
Released 1996
Williams was convicted, along with three others, for the murder of a young couple in 1978. After spending 18 years in prison, Williams was released on June 14, 1996 because new evidence pointed to the fact that all four men were wrongly convicted. Much of the investigative work which led to the defendants’ release was done by three journalism students. Recent DNA tests indicate that none of the four men were involved in the crime, and another man has confessed to the murder. Charges against Williams, and two others who received lesser sentences in the same case, were dropped on July 2, 1996. Cook County State’s Attorney Jack O’Malley apologized to the four wrongly convicted defendants, including Verneal Jimerson, who had also been on death row.
Robert Lee Miller, Jr., Oklahoma
Conviction 1988
Released 1997
Miller was convicted of the rape and murder of two elderly women in 1988. However, recent DNA testing done on preserved evidence points to another defendant who was already incarcerated on similar charges. Oklahoma County Special Judge Larry Jones dismissed the charges against Miller in February, 1997, saying that there was not enough evidence to justify his continued imprisonment. Miller’s original conviction was overturned in 1995, and he was granted a new trial.
Earl Washington, Virginia
Conviction 1984
Commuted to life 1994
Earl Washington suffers from mental retardation. After he was arrested on another charge in 1983, police convinced him to make a statement concerning the rape and murder of a woman in Culpeper in 1982. He later recanted that statement. Subsequent DNA tests confirmed that Washington did not rape the victim, who had lived long enough to state that there was only one perpetrator of the crime. The DNA results combined with the victim’s statement all but exonerated Washington. Shortly before leaving office in 1994, Governor Wilder commuted Washington’s sentence to life with the possibility of parole. He remains incarcerated.
From Innocence and the Death Penalty: Assessing The Danger of Mistaken Executions, Staff Report, Subcommittee on Civil & Constitutional Rights, Committee on the Judiciary, 103 Cong., 1st Sess. (1993) (hereinafter Subcommittee Report), note 14: “Kirk Bloodsworth was exonerated in Maryland because DNA testing became available years after his trial. This was a fortuitous scientific development, not the normal workings of the appeals process.”
Robert Hayes, Florida
Conviction 1991
Released 1997
Hayes was convicted of the rape and murder of a co-worker based partly on faulty forensic evidence. The Florida Supreme Court threw out Hayes’s conviction in 1995. The victim had been found clutching hairs from her assailant. At the first trial, the police laboratory specialist testified that there was a substantial probability the hairs matched Hayes. Subsequent DNA testing revealed the hairs were from a white man, whereas Hayes is black. Hayes was acquitted at a retrial in July, 1997.
Ronald Keith Williamson, Oklahoma Conviction 1988
Released 1999
Ronald Williamson and Dennis Fritz were charged with the murder and rape of Deborah Sue Carter, which occurred in Ada, Oklahoma in 1982. They were arrested four years after the crime. Both were convicted and Williamson received the death penalty. In 1997, a federal appeals court overturned Williamson’s conviction on the basis of ineffectiveness of counsel. The court noted that the lawyer had failed to investigate and present to the jury the fact that another man had confessed to the crime. The lawyer had been paid a total of $3,200 for the defense. Recently, DNA tests from the crime scene did not match either Williamson or Fritz, but did match Glen Gore, a former suspect in the case. All charges against the two defendants were dismissed on April 15, 1999 and they were released.
Ronald Jone, Illinois
Conviction 1989
Charges Dropped 1999
Jones was a homeless man when he was convicted of the rape and murder of a Chicago woman. After a lengthy interrogation in which Jones says he was beaten by police, he signed a confession. Prosecutors at his conviction described him as a “cold brutal rapist” who “should never see the light of day.” (NY Times 5/19/99). Recent DNA testing revealed that Jones was not the rapist and there was no evidence of any accomplice to the murder. The Cook County state’s attorney filed a motion asking the Illinois Supreme Court to vacate Jones’s conviction in 1997. In May, 1999, the state dropped all charges against Jones.
Kerry Max Cook, Texas
Conviction 1978
Released Nov. 1997
Concluded 1999
Cook was originally convicted of killing Linda Jo Edwards in 1978. In 1988, he came within 11 days of execution, when the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the Texas Court to review its decision. Cook’s conviction was overturned in 1991. He was re-tried in 1992, but the trial ended in a hung jury. In 1993, a state district judge ruled that prosecutors had engaged in systematic misconduct, surpressing key evidence. In 1994, Cook was tried again, and this time found guilty and again sentenced to death. On Nov. 6, 1996, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals reversed his conviction, saying that “prosecutorial and police misconduct has tainted this entire matter from the outset.” The court ruled that key testimony from the 1994 trial could not be used in any further prosecution. Prior to the start of his fourth trial in February, 1999, Cook pleaded no contest to a reduced murder charge and was released. He continued to maintain his complete innocence, but accepted the deal to avoid the possibility of another wrongful conviction. Rec