Proponents of the death penalty have asserted that it has not been proven that an innocent person has been executed in the United States since the death penalty was restored in the mid-1970s following Furman v. Georgia. That is true only according to the proponents' definition of innocence.
They define an innocent person as someone whose innocence has been officially exonerated, either by a court or admission by the prosecutor. Under that operative definition, innocence has never been established because the criminal justice process officially ends with execution. There simply is no process for post-execution exoneration.
However, at least 39 executions have been carried out in the United States in face of compelling evidence of innocence or serious doubt about guilt. While innocence has not been proven in any specific case, there is no reasonable doubt that some of the executed prisoners were innocent.
The case summaries:
James Adams (Florida)
Odell Barnes, Jr. (Texas)
James Beathard (Texas)
Brian K. Baldwin (Alabama)
Charles Anthony Boyd (Texas)
David Castillo (Texas)
Clyde Coleman (Texas)
Willie Jasper Darden, Jr. (Florida)
Girvies Davis (Illinois)
Carlos DeLuna (Texas)
Robert Nelson Drew (Texas)
James Otto Earhart (Texas)
Tony Farris (Texas)
Gary Graham (aka Shaka Sankofa) (Texas)
Lionel Torres Herrera (Texas)
Jerry Lee Hogue (Texas)
Jesse Jacobs (Texas)
Carl Johnson (Texas)
Malcolm Rent Johnson (Oklahoma)
Leo Jones (Florida)
Richard Wayne Jones (Texas)
Amos King (Florida)
Davis Losada (Texas)
Robert Madden (Texas)
Justin Lee May (Texas)
Frank Basil McFarland (Texas)
Larry Eugene Moon (Georgia)
Joseph O'Dell (Virginia)
Charles Rector (Texas)
Kenneth Ray Ransom (Texas)
Roy Michael
Roberts (Missouri)
R. Mead Shumway (Nebraska)
Cornelius Singleton (Alabama)
David Spence (Texas)
David Stoker (Texas)
Jesse J. Tafero (Florida)
Thomas M. Thompson (California)
Martin Vega (Texas)
Freddie Lee Wright (Alabama)
