Innocence is Not Enough: The Public Life of Death Row Exonerations

Who Is Blamed for the Wrongful Conviction? The total number of people blamed is 372_ The number of articles in which someone is blamed is 334 because within a single article there may be multiple instances of blame_

	Blamed
Individual Actor	221 (59.4%)
The State	137 (36.8%)
The Exoneree	1 (3.8%)
Total	372

Attributing Blame for the Wrongful Convictions

	Attribute Blame
Yes	334 (32.2%)
No	702 (67.8%)

Who Questions Innocence?

Speakers Questioning Innocence	DNA Cases	Non-DNA Cases
State	37 (90.4%)	129 (66.5%)
Advocate of Victim	2 (4.8%)	32 (16.5%)
Juror	1 (2.4%)	6 (3.1%)
Citizen	1 (2.4%)	23 (11.8%)
Newspaper	0 (0.0%)	4 (2.1%)
Total Number of Speakers Questioning Innocence	41	194

Use of the word “Exoneration”_

	Use of word “Exoneration”
Yes	426 (24.8%)
No	1,291 (75.2%)
Total	1,717

Questioning the Exoneree's Innocence In this and subsequent tables we focus on the subset of articles which contain some explanation or argument about why someone was released from death row_

	Innocence Questioned
Yes	235 (22.7%)
No	801 (77.3%)
Total	1,036

Who Questions Innocence? The total here is larger than the 235 articles in which innocence is questioned because those articles may contain more than one instance in which that occurs_

Speaker	Percentage of Times Innocence is Questioned
State	177 (68.3%)
Advocate for Victim	45 (17.5%)
Juror	7 (2.7%)
Citizen	26 (10%)
Newspaper	4 (1.5%)
Total of Speakers who Questioned Innocence	259

Questioning Innocence in DNA Exonerations

Innocence Questioned
DNA Case	41 (17.5%)
Non-DNA Case	194 (82.5%)
Total Number of Articles in Which Innocence is Questioned	235

Who Attributes Blame?

Speakers doing the Blaming
State	51 (13.7%)
Advocate of Victim	4 (1.1%)
Juror	1 (0.3%)
Citizen	37 (9.9%)
Newspaper Reporter	134 (36%)
Exoneree or His/Her Advocate	145 (39%)
Total Number of Speakers Attributing Blame	372