13 Famous Cases of Wrongful Conviction

Justice is a nebulous concept and out of reach for even the most powerful people. In this world, there is really only the law. The law, however, remains imperfect. Combine that with bad investigations, infallible eyewitnesses, and mistaken identity, and you have a recipe for wrongful convictions. It's hard to say how many people behind bars are innocent but judging by this list, there's probably a lot.

Some cases of wrongful conviction on this list likely originated from racism. Others, however, expose the failings of courts, prosecutors, and judges in delivering accurate rulings. With recent innovations in DNA testing, more and more people behind bars are being freed. As such, let's look at 13 of the most famous cases of wrongful conviction. Some are absurd, others tragic, but all speak to the fallibility of America's justice system. (For capital punishment, discover the most famous executions in U.S. history.)

To compile a list of famous cases of wrongful conviction, 24/7 Tempo consulted a range of law, history, and news publications including The Innocence Project, Hein Online, and The National Registry of Exonerations. Next, we selected notable cases of wrongful convictions and subsequent exonerations from American history. From there, we confirmed parts of our research using sites like ABCNews.com and The National Museum of African American History & Culture.

The most famous case of wrongful conviction in recent memory is the Central Park Five. After a woman was brutally assaulted in New York's Central Park on April 19, 1989, police arrested Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana, Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, and Korey Wise (along with Steven Lopez). A majority of the men arrested initially admitted to the crime after hours of police interrogation. Though they recanted their confessions later, saying they were made under duress, they were all convicted.

The five (six including Lopez) served several years before serial offender Matias Reyes confessed to the crime. Police also matched Reyes' DNA to that found at the crime scene. As a result, all of the accused men had their convictions overturned. The men, however, spent years attempting to get their names exonerated and receive compensation for their time served. In September 2014, all of them received settlements of $7.1 million, except for Wise, who received $12.2 million for serving six additional years.

In 2004, Sheldon Thomas was arrested and convicted of second-degree murder, attempted murder, and other charges related to his alleged involvement in a shooting in East Flatbush, New York, which left one dead and one injured. Detectives misled eyewitnesses by having them identify a different person with the same name. Even though the error in finding the suspect came to light during court proceedings, the district attorney persisted with the charges against Thomas. Arrested at age 16, it took 20 years of work to get Thomas' conviction overturned.

Finally, in March 2023, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez moved to vacate Thomas' conviction after a recent investigation determined it to be wrongful. Thomas was finally freed at the age of 35, having spent nearly 20 years in prison. A year after his conviction was overturned, the City of New York paid Thomas a settlement of $6.5 million.

After an 11-year-old girl was murdered in Robeson County, North Carolina, a local pointed to two intellectually disabled brothers as the culprits, 19-year-old Henry McCollum and 15-year-old Leon Brown. Though police had no physical evidence linking the brothers to the crime, they coerced the brothers into signing false confessions. Then at trial, prosecutors suppressed evidence that would have likely resulted in their acquittals. The brothers were convicted of murder and sentenced to death, with Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia later citing the case as a justification for capital punishment.

While serving out their sentences, McCollum and Brown fought hard to get their convictions overturned. After earning a retrial in the 1990s, however, McCollum was convicted again of murder while Brown was convicted of rape. They continued to fight their cases until the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission got involved. The commission sought new DNA testing, which revealed a man named Roscoe Artis as the actual perpetrator. After spending 31 years in prison, the brothers were finally exonerated in 2014. Upon being granted freedom, McCollum and Brown received a $75 million settlement. It remains the largest compensation for a wrongful conviction in American history.

On Oct. 30, 1994, two masked gunmen ran up to a porch in St. Louis where Greg Elking and Markus Boyd sat. They shot Boyd but spared Elking, who fled the scene. While investigating the murder, detectives spoke to Boyd's girlfriend who mentioned Lamar Johnson as a potential suspect. A longtime friend of Boyd's, the pair had a falling out preceding the murder. When the police caught up with Elking, they had him pick the gunmen out of a lineup. He picked Johnson. Satisfied with the evidence, police arrested Johnson. Despite contradictory witness statements and an airtight alibi, jurors took less than two hours to convict Johnson of murder. He was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.

While in prison, Johnson filed motions for a new trial but to little avail. After serving several years, Johnson's case became of interest to the Midwest Innocence Project. Its investigation discovered that star witness Elking had admitted to lying on the stand as well as receiving payments from the police to ensure his implication of Johnson. St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner agreed to take another look at Johnson's case in 2018 but it took until the Missouri Legislature passed a law in 2021 that allowed bringing cases of innocence to court. On Feb. 14, 2023, Johnson was exonerated and released from prison. Despite efforts for restitution, Johnson will likely receive none since the overturning of his case did not involve DNA evidence.

When Kimberly Long arrived home on the morning of Oct. 6, 2003, she discovered her boyfriend Ozzy Conde brutally murdered. Thus began Long's extended nightmare. Despite loads of evidence to the contrary, the court convicted Long of Conde's murder in 2005, though she didn't start her sentence of 15 years to life until she lost her appeal in 2009. Though she was released after seven years, she remained embroiled in legal proceedings with the Riverside County District Attorney's Office.

After showing the court evidence of her innocence, including DNA matches with an unknown suspect, the California Supreme Court unanimously overturned Long's conviction on Nov. 30, 2020. It took another year for Long's charges to be formally dismissed. Though Long has yet to receive restitution from the state of California, the California Victim Compensation Fund paid her $386,400 in September 2022.

In August 1981, police discovered Carolyn Armstrong's body on a dirt road in Navarro County, Texas. She had been stabbed dozens of times, and the only piece of evidence was a hairnet in her car which was abandoned miles away. At the time, Randolph Arledge was in nearby Corsicana visiting family. Thereafter, he met up with Bennie Lamas and Paula Lucas and traveled to Tennessee in a stolen van where they were arrested on armed robbery charges. Lamas and Lucas took a plea deal, which saw them implicate Arledge in Armstrong's murder. Even though there was no physical evidence linking Arledge to the murder and he had multiple eyewitnesses affirming his alibi, the court convicted him and sentenced him to 99 years in prison.

Arledge spent 14 years in prison. During that time, Lamas recanted his statements and admitted to making them in hopes of a favorable sentence for his case. Nothing happened, however, until the Innocence Project got involved. With cooperation from the Navarro County District Attorney's Office, it did new DNA tests on items in Armstrong's car, revealing a match to convicted felon David Sims. Upon being presented with the evidence, Sims admitted to being in the vicinity of Armstrong the night of her murder. On Feb. 11, 2013, Arledge was released on bond before being officially exonerated by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. In turn, Arledge received a payout of $1,146,000 with a monthly annuity of $7,140.

In the spring of 2014, someone committed a string of robberies of 7-Eleven stores in Eastpointe, Michigan. Police initially reported a suspect with a medium build and a height of 6 feet fleeing the scene. During their investigation, police tested DNA evidence found on a beer can outside the 7-Eleven. Despite it containing other DNA as well as a straw with women's DNA, Mack Howell's DNA match made him a prime suspect. From his first interrogation onward, Howell defiantly maintained his innocence. For one, he was 5'6″ and 200 pounds. Furthermore, he had a medical condition that prevented him from running at all. Even with evidence to the contrary, a Michigan court convicted Howell of the robbery in 2016.

After his appeals were denied several times, Howell brought his case to the University of Michigan's Innocence Clinic. During its investigation, it discovered discrepancies between Howell's and the suspect's description as well as a string of nearby armed robberies that weren't admitted into evidence. In March 2023, Circuit Judge Edward Servitto vacated Howell's conviction and sentence. He was released after serving seven years in prison. Upon filing a federal civil rights lawsuit that same year, Howell received $321,378 in state compensation.

After a woman was severely assaulted on July 17, 1982, she reported it to police. She said it was a Black man who told her he lived with a white woman. Since the responding officer only knew one Black man who lived with a white woman, he immediately singled out Marvin Anderson, a volunteer firefighter with no criminal record. The officer visited Anderson's place of work and obtained his photo. Upon showing the woman Anderson's photo along with several others in a lineup, she pointed at Anderson as the perpetrator. From the outset of the case, members of the community were suspicious of another man instead, John Otis Lincoln. While undergoing trial, Anderson attempted to enter the suspect into evidence but was unsuccessful. An all-white jury convicted and sentenced him to 210 years in prison.

A few years later, John Otis Lincoln admitted to his involvement in the attack under oath in open court in front of the case's original judge. Despite this, the judge refused to vacate Anderson's conviction. Anderson was released on parole in 1997 but had to register as a sex offender and wear an ankle monitor, so he sought the Innocence Project's help. After winning access to the case's DNA evidence, the Innocence Project proved DNA matches to several men but not Anderson.

He spent nearly two decades maintaining his innocence until Virginia Gov. Mark Warne granted him a full pardon. Later, the Virginia Legislature gave Anderson compensation of $200,000 plus $40,000 annually. Thanks to his exoneration, Anderson went on to become district chief of the Hanover Courthouse Volunteer Fire Company. He also served on the board of directors for the Innocence Project. (For landmark cases, learn about famous trials that captivated the nation.)

A 1990 home invasion in Coral Gables, Florida, resulted in the murder of Francis McKinnon. His daughter Dorothy Walton who survived the attack subsequently picked Thomas Raynard James out of a lineup. Thus begins a complicated case of mistaken identity and witness recanting. During that time, police were investigating another Thomas James for a string of robberies and home invasions in South Florida. This may have led to Thomas Raynard James' inclusion in the police lineup. Then 23, James was arrested on an unrelated charge but failed to show up for his court hearing. Subsequently, police arrested him for the murder. His trial only lasted two days. Despite not matching any of the fingerprints taken from the crime scene, Walton's assurance that James was the perpetrator led to his conviction, sentencing, and serving of 30 years behind bars.

Though she was sure James was involved during his trial, Walton spoke out in 2021, saying "They had the wrong guy." A much-publicized investigation of his case published in GQ Magazine helped get the wheels in motion. Finally, in April 2022, a team of Miami prosecutors and judges realized the case was one of mistaken identity and exonerated James. A bill filed by Florida state Sen. Darryl Rouson seeks to compensate James to the tune of $1.6 million. However, there have been no updates to the story since the time of its publishing.

After legendary civil rights leader Malcolm X was assassinated at New York's Audubon Ballroom, Muhammad Aziz and Khalil Islam were arrested, tried, and subsequently convicted for the murder. They spent decades in prison until Aziz was released on parole in 1985 and Islam was released two years later. Nevertheless, the pair maintained their innocence and fought to have their sentences overturned. As members of the Nation of Islam and Malcolm X's mosque 7. in Harlem, the pair were fingered for X's murder. In the 1970s, however, fellow Nation of Islam member Talmadge Hayer testified neither Aziz nor Islam was responsible. Furthermore, he signed an affidavit naming four other men involved in X's murder.

Despite their pleas of innocence, nothing happened until Netflix released a documentary investigating the assassination called "Who Killed Malcolm X?" A chance viewing of the documentary by Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance led him to reopen the case. After discovering new evidence, Vance vacated Aziz and Islam's convictions. A lawsuit from Aziz and Islam's estate (he passed away in 2009) resulted in a $36 million payout.

During the 1990s, Suzanne Johnson worked as an at-home day care provider in the San Diego area. While attending to an infant under her care on June 24, 1997, Johnson called 911 after the infant became limp and stopped breathing. Tragically, the baby died. In short order, the police and prosecutors pointed the finger at Johnson, claiming intentional abuse on her part that led to the baby's death. She endured two separate trials. The first resulted in a hung jury before the second resulted in a conviction of assault on a child causing death. Johnson received a life sentence.

It took years for anything to happen. In time, however, innovations in forensic pediatric pathology challenged the evidence that got Johnson convicted. The triad of abuse symptoms related to infant abuse cases was no longer the proof it was at the time of her trial. This helped facilitate Johnson's claims of innocence. Upon an investigation of her case, authorities discovered crucial evidence that was ignored in her trials, such as the breathing tube being placed incorrectly during resuscitation efforts likely contributing to the infant's death. In turn, California governors Jerry Brown and Gavin Newsom filed clemency petitions. On March 27, 2020, Newsom granted Johnson's clemency. A week later, she walked out of prison free after 21 years behind bars.

In 1931, nine African American teenagers were accused of raping two white women. What followed was one of the most famous cases of wrongful conviction and one that would help kick off the Civil Rights Movement. As the story goes, police arrested a group of teenagers after a fight broke out on a train in Alabama. Two white women on board subsequently accused the teenagers of rape, a serious if not deadly charge in the Jim Crow Era South. In time, the nine teenagers stood trial and were convicted by an all-white, all-male jury. The jurors gave the death penalty to all but the youngest of the boys.

The case went through a series of appeals. In the process, The International Labor Defense of the American Communist Party took up their cause and drew widespread support from all corners of the country. First, this led to a Supreme Court ruling. In Powell vs. Alabama, the court ruled that boys had their 14th Amendment rights violated as they were denied the right to counsel. Later, one of the women recanted her rape allegations and the case went back to the Alabama courts. They upheld the boys' death sentences. Norris vs. Alabama, however, ruled the trials as unfair since no Black men were on the jury. A series of trials followed until charges were dropped against four of the teenagers. The other five received long prison sentences until they were granted pardons years later.

One of the earliest wrongful convictions in American history involved a man named William Jackson Marion. In 1872, Marion and his friend John Cameron were traveling to Gage County, Nebraska, to find work on the railroad. After Cameron disappeared, Marion became the prime suspect in his murder. Furthermore, a body found nearby was initially believed to be Cameron's, cementing the case against Marion. In turn, Marion was convicted of murder and sentenced to death. The case was appealed and the Nebraska Supreme Court ordered a new trial. Marion, however, was found guilty again and hanged on March 25, 1887.

As it turns out, no murder had ever been committed. The body found was not Cameron's, who was discovered living in Mexico four years later. He reportedly traveled to Mexico to avoid paternity disputes with a woman. Tragically, Marion was executed before he could get justice. On the 100th anniversary of his death, the State of Nebraska granted a full pardon to William Jackson Marion. (For famous felons, discover 10 of the most famous people currently in jail.)