State courts have exonerated more than 2,900 people since comprehensive data tracking began in 1989. On average, exonerees lost 9 years and 13 days to wrongful conviction. The time lost—26,645 years, collectively—robbed exonerees of the ability to enjoy countless holidays, birthdays, and the myriad liberties that come with freedom.

On average, the total number of individuals exonerated each year has increased, with several notable fluctuations. These abrupt shifts are influenced by a variety of factors, including changes to state policy, advancements in DNA testing, involvement from conviction integrity units that review wrongful conviction claims, and group exonerations stemming from systemic misconduct.

For example, exonerations increased nearly threefold between 1998 and 2000, in large part due to roughly 170 exonerations stemming from the discovery of systemic misconduct within the Los Angeles Police Department.

Looking at California’s exonerations over time, the increase in exonerations around 2000 is even more apparent.

Once a wrongful conviction is overturned, what justice can an exoneree seek? It is near impossible to put a monetary value on the loss of freedom, but advocates says that providing compensation is an essential component of correcting past wrongs.

When seeking compensation from the state, exactly what and how much an exoneree can claim largely depends on where the exoneree lives. The District of Columbia and 38 states currently have policies for compensating and providing services to exonerees.

These policies vary greatly between states. For example, statutes dictate that an exoneree in New Hampshire could claim $20,000 for three years of wrongful imprisonment, whereas an exoneree in the District of Columbia could claim $600,000 for the same amount of time.

But the reality is that the majority of exonerees have received no state compensation at all.

The dearth of state compensation is due to a variety of factors. As mentioned before, 12 states do not have an exoneree compensation statute, so exonerees in those states do not have an option to pursue this compensation. (They can, however, still pursue federal civil rights lawsuits.)

Exonerees in states with compensation statutes may not have received compensation if they were never incarcerated, their claim was denied or they simply never filed a claim. For exonerees who served a short amount of time for their wrongful conviction, the cost and hassle of pursuing a claim can quickly outweigh the potential gains. These numbers may shift in coming years as pending claims are decided and as exonerees file claims before their states' statutes of limitations run out.

Civil rights lawsuits are a separate avenue for pursuing compensation for wrongful conviction and are not captured above. Some exonerees have viable civil rights cases, but not all. In order to have a strong case, claimants must take additional action to pinpoint official misconduct that led to their wrongful conviction, all while navigating immunity protections and other limitations.

Among all exonerees, more than half never received any compensation for the harms caused by their wrongful conviction.