# Executed after innocence is proven? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 11, 2004, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/executed-after-innocence-is-proven/228570 "2004-02-11T01:52:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DVsickgirlDV](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5e925/32.png) [@DVsickgirlDV](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DVsickgirlDV)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2004, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/executed-after-innocence-is-proven/228570/1 "2004-02-11T01:52:45Z")
I remember reading somewhere a long time ago that in the United States, 13 people have been found innocent through DNA evidence after they were executed. Can anyone tell me a reliable website (i.e. [cnn.com](http://cnn.com), [msn.com](http://msn.com)) that can prove this fact? Thanks ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2004, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/executed-after-innocence-is-proven/228570/2 "2004-02-11T01:56:07Z")
From your post, it seems that in the title, “after” should be replaced with “and then” – correct? ---
**Author:** ![DVsickgirlDV](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5e925/32.png) [@DVsickgirlDV](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DVsickgirlDV)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2004, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/executed-after-innocence-is-proven/228570/3 "2004-02-11T04:03:54Z")
> [@Xema](#): > > From your post, it seems that in the title, “after” should be replaced with “and then” – correct? yes! oops ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2004, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/executed-after-innocence-is-proven/228570/4 "2004-02-11T12:06:30Z")
Going with the name of the thread… In the movie _Reversal of Fortune_, it was mentioned that in Rhode Island, they won’t grant a retrial solely on the grounds of actual innocence; that some kind of procedural error has to be the grounds for a retrial. Hope they make an exception for death penalty cases… ---
**Author:** ![puddleglum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puddleglum/32/137_2.png) [@puddleglum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puddleglum)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2004, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/executed-after-innocence-is-proven/228570/5 "2004-02-11T16:31:20Z")
I think what you read was that 13 people have been exonerated by DNA evidence after being sentenced to death. There have not been any people executed after DNA evidence has exonerated them. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2004, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/executed-after-innocence-is-proven/228570/6 "2004-02-11T16:44:57Z")
Since 1972, 112 people have been released from death row due to evidence of actual innocence, but if anyone innocent has been executed, nobody knows about it for certain. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2004, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/executed-after-innocence-is-proven/228570/7 "2004-02-11T16:49:50Z")
Also, **puddleglum** is right, what you heard was 13 people have been released after conviction due to DNA evidence, but the number is now 14. Nicholas Yarris was released in Decemebr 2003 after 20 years on Death Row. The remainder of the 112 were released on exculpatory evidence other than DNA. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2004, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/executed-after-innocence-is-proven/228570/8 "2004-02-11T17:00:04Z")
Of course there is a trick to all this. While we can feel pretty sure lots of innocent people have been executed, it is a little tougher to prove. Once a guy is executed there is little to no reason to go back and run DNA tests on evidence to see if he was The Right Guy. After all the time, money and effort is better spent checking on people about to be executed. Excuse me while I point out that after the execution, it becomes a dead issue. Still, it would be darn interesting from a historical perspective. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2004, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/executed-after-innocence-is-proven/228570/9 "2004-02-11T17:05:55Z")
Since the death penalty was revived in 1973 (following a suspension of several years) 112 people have had their convictions overturned. 12 of them (by my quick count) were freed at least partly on the basis of DNA evidence. This is probably what you’re thinking of. see : [http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?scid=6&did=109](http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?scid=6&did=109) There is no conclusive proof of an innocent person executed, but there are a few cases where there are doubts about guilt. see : [http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?scid=6&did=111#executed](http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?scid=6&did=111#executed) IIRC Rhode Island doesn’t have a death penalty. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2004, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/executed-after-innocence-is-proven/228570/10 "2004-02-11T17:40:41Z")
Whoops. I was mistaken; Nicholas Yarris makes the count 13 in total. The 12 in **peter morris’s** link is only up to July 29 of last year. ---
**Author:** ![micco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f8ce5/32.png) [@micco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/micco)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2004, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/executed-after-innocence-is-proven/228570/11 "2004-02-11T18:17:40Z")
> [@Paul in Saudi](#): > > Excuse me while I point out that after the execution, it becomes a dead issue. I hate to cite works of fiction, but the movie [The Life of David Gale](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0289992/) raises this issue. It makes the point that proving the innocence of an executed convict is exactly what’s needed to prove the system doesn’t work. When innocence is proven before execution, even by extreme effort, it supports the view that the overall system works to protect the innocent. In the short term, advocacy groups may want to spend their resources protecting the not-yet-executed, but finding an executed innocent is a tool for more sweeping change. ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2004, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/executed-after-innocence-is-proven/228570/12 "2004-02-11T18:37:18Z")
> [@Paul in Saudi](#): > > Once a guy is executed there is little to no reason to go back and run DNA tests on evidence to see if he was The Right Guy. Except that if the person who was executed was not guilty, that means that someone else was guilty and got away with it. Some cases like this proceed from the other end – that is another viable suspect (perhaps arrested for a separate crime) is located, and his DNA is tested to see if he committed the first crime as well. ---
**Author:** ![KGS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/90ced4/32.png) [@KGS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KGS)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2004, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/executed-after-innocence-is-proven/228570/13 "2004-02-11T20:10:33Z")
> [@micco](#): > > I hate to cite works of fiction, but the movie [The Life of David Gale](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0289992/) raises this issue. It makes the point that proving the innocence of an executed convict is exactly what’s needed to prove the system doesn’t work. Eh…fictional work or not, I’m not moved by a case where a man’s framed for murder by the very people who are against the death penalty. It’s kinda like PETA poisoning zoo animals or something. A better example would be [“Computers Don’t Argue”](http://www.atariarchives.org/bcc2/showpage.php?page=133), a short story by Gordon R. Dickson, in which a man’s accidentally put on death row due to clerical error. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![micco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f8ce5/32.png) [@micco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/micco)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2004, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/executed-after-innocence-is-proven/228570/14 "2004-02-11T20:53:24Z")
> [@KGS](#): > > Eh…fictional work or not, I’m not moved by a case where a man’s framed for murder by the very people who are against the death penalty. It’s rather beside the point, but he wasn’t framed, at least not unwittingly. The point is that the pro-death penalty side (in the movie, the Texas govenor) say the system works to protect the innocent. They include advocacy groups who have to take extreme measures to save innocent convicts from death row as part of that system. As long as those groups “rescue” innocents from death row but can’t point to a single innocent person who has been executed, the system works. I probably shouldn’t have mentioned the movie since the anti-death penalty advocates end up failing to make their point for exactly the reason you give. I only mentioned it because it raises this issue of _needing_ to find an executed innocent to prove the system doesn’t work, and that’s only really relevant as a response to **Paul** ’s comment that after they’re executed, it’s a dead issue. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2004, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/executed-after-innocence-is-proven/228570/15 "2004-02-18T22:46:40Z")
Add Alan Gell to the list of death row inmates released, after 10 years and a new trial. While some may argue that his case is proof that the system works, it is a compelling argument against the hasty execution of death sentences advocated by some. [http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=519&e=12&u=/ap/death\_row\_acquittal](http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=519&e=12&u=/ap/death_row_acquittal)