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Test Your Knowledge

Test Your Knowledge
  • October 2nd – Wrongful Conviction Day
  • October 10th – World Day Against the Death Penalty

Test your knowledge below

1. How many people have been exonerated from death row in the US?

2. What are some of the leading causes of wrongful convictions?

3. True or False: All exonerees are legally guaranteed compensation after having their wrongful convictions overturned.

4. How many US states still retain the death penalty?

5. How many countries still retain the death penalty?

6. Which US state has had the most death row exonerations?

7. Which US county has had the most death row exonerations?

8. Which 1972 Supreme Court case temporarily abolished the death penalty in the US?

9. On average, how many years have exonerated death row survivors spent wrongfully incarcerated?

10. What are the two most recent US states to abolish the death penalty?

Answers:

  1. 201 people have been exonerated from death row since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.
  2. Official misconduct, eyewitness error, false accusation or perjury, ineffective assistance of counsel, and coerced false confessions. To learn more about WTI members’ cases, reasons for wrongful convictions, and exoneration stories, click here.
  3. False. While some states do have compensation statutes, there are loopholes that prevent many exonerees from receiving compensation. Several states have no compensation laws at all.
  4. 27 states.
  5. 55 countries.
  6. Florida (30 death row exonerations).
  7. Cook County, Illinois (16 death row exonerations).
  8. Furman v. Georgia.
  9. 13 years.
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