In this March 27, 2007, file photo, Audrey Edmunds poses at the John C. Burke Correctional Center in Waupun, Wis., 10 years into serving her 18-year conviction and sentence for shaking a baby to death, while babysitting. Edmunds is one of more than 2,000 people falsely convicted of a serious crime who have been exonerated in the United States in the past 23 years, according to a new national registry painstakingly assembled by the University of Michigan Law School and the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University School of Law. It is the most complete list of exonerations ever compiled. (AP Photo/Morry Gash, File)PETE YOST
WASHINGTON (AP) – More than 2,000 people who were falsely convicted of serious crimes have been exonerated in the United States in the past 23 years, according to a new archive compiled at two universities.
There is no official record-keeping system for exonerations of convicted criminals in the country, so academics set one up. The new national registry, or database, painstakingly assembled by the University of Michigan Law School and the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University School of Law, is the most complete list of exonerations ever compiled.
The database compiled and analyzed by the researchers contains information on 873 exonerations for which they have the most detailed evidence. The researchers are aware of nearly 1,200 other exonerations, for which they have less data.
They found that those 873 exonerated defendants spent a combined total of more than 10,000 years in prison, an average of more than 11 years each. Nine out of 10 of them are men and half are African-American.