Criteria for Cases Listed as Exonerations
The Center on Wrongful Convictions uses the terms “wrongful conviction” and “exoneration” synonymously to describe any case in which a defendant was convicted of a crime and later restored to the status of legal innocence.
While there is an obvious difference between legal innocence and actual innocence — as there is between legal guilt and actual guilt — there is compelling evidence of actual innocence in a substantial majority of wrongful conviction cases.
The cases included on the CWC list are those — and only those — in which there is evidence of actual innocence.
In addition to cases in which the defendant has been restored to legal innocence, the CWC list includes cases in which appellate courts ordered new trials and, in spite of compelling evidence of actual innocence, the defendant entered a plea of guilty in order to secure prompt release.
