VADP

Since 1973, 140 people have been exonerated from death row in the United States.

On January 23 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal by the state of Ohio challenging the unconditional writ of habeas corpus and bar to the re-prosecution of Joe D'Ambrosio (pictured), thus ending the capital case. He has now been freed from death row with all charges dismissed.  A federal District Court had first overturned D'Ambrosio's conviction in 2006 because the state had withheld key evidence from the defense

Read More about the latest exoneration here>>

Visit the Death Penalty Informaiton Center for the latest information on the cases of the exonerated.

Virginia has exonerated one person, Earl Washington, Jr., out of over 100 executed. For Virginia not to have executed an innocent person, the Commonwealth would have to get it right 10 times more often than the national average. An Expendable Man , Margaret Edd's biography of this case demonstrates how alarmingly easy it is to get confessions from innocent people and then sentence them to death. Read the executive pardon petition prepared by his defense attorneys.

Visit Witness to Innocence, the national organization of death row exonerees, to hear the stories of men and women wrongfully sentenced to death.