It is impossible to know for sure but it has been estimated that up to 5% of all prisoners in the United States are innocent. If these estimates are correct then there are approximately 100,000 innocent people currently wrongfully imprisoned in the US alone. Unfortunately we have found no current studies to determine how many people are currently wrongfully imprisoned worldwide.
Thankfully corrections are occasionally made with the help of various Innocence projects, families that never give up, and grassroots efforts to help those who have been wrongfully accused. Our list below contains a small sample of cases. We also include links to the Innocence Project’s list of successful exonerations.
Gary Gauger (death row exoneration)
Amanda Knox & Raffaele Sollecito
Anthony Porter (death row exoneration)
The West Memphis Three (death row exoneration)