The research, which was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and headed up by University of Michigan law professor Samuel Gross, said that hose removed from death row were given less attention than those on death row although accounting for more exonerations. Whilst only 1.6 percent of those on death-row are exonerated and released, the research says the actual figure is likely to be at least 4.1 per cent when considering cases of prisoners reprieved from death row and given a life sentence .
Life in prison
In a press release, Professor Gross said that since 1973, ‘nearly 8,500 defendants have been sentenced to death in the United States, and 138 of them have been exonerated.’ He added that the study meant ‘that more than 200 additional innocent defendants have been sentenced to death in that period. Most of these undiscovered innocent capital defendants have been resentenced to life in prison, and then forgotten.’
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