United States - OHCHR Call for Inputs - Death Penalty - March 2025
Country: United States of America
Issues: Death Penalty
Mechanism: UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
Report Type: Call for Inputs
In 2024, authorities in the United States exonerated three men from death row, bringing the total number of death row exonerations to 200 since 1973.
Juries and courts had wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death Daniel Gwynn, Kerry Max Cook, and Larry Roberts, and they spent 29, 46, and 41 years incarcerated, respectively, before their exonerations.
Despite a collective 116 years of wrongful incarceration and time on death row, these three people, like many other death row exonerees, may never receive any state or federal compensation due to restrictive or non-existent compensation laws. And despite their innocence, death row exonerees like these three individuals have criminal records related to their false conviction that may never be cleared. At their release, the majority of death row exonerees have no money, housing, transportation, healthcare, or insurance.
At present, legislation, programs by public-private partnerships, and other initiatives to bring death row exonerees justice—including compensation, record relief, and support toward rebuilding their lives—are limited in scope, capacity, and efficacy.
This report includes policy and legislative reform recommendations that would provide all death row
exonerees with access to basic human rights and justice after release.
