11 States with Highest Number of Exonerations

2. New York

Number of exonerated convicts: 208

Exonerated convict who served the longest time in prison: Freddie Peacock, Amaury Villalobos and William Vasquez (34 years)

Three innocent men spent almost 34 years until they were exonerated in the state of New York. In 1976, Freddie Peacock was sent to prison for the rape. He spent next three decades in jail, claiming his innocence but it was not before 2010 he was finally freed thanks to DNA testing.

In the other case three Hispanic men Raymond Mora, Amaury Villalobos, and William Vasquez were convicted to a sentence of 25 years to life for murder and arson in which mother and her five children died. Raymond Mora died from heart attack in prison in 1989, and other two defendants were released on parole in 2012. The wrongful conviction was a result of false testimony and wrong interpretation of forensic evidence. State fire marshal testified that the fire was set intentionally. But in 2010, John Lentini, an arson expert, reexamined the evidence and concluded that the first interpretation was wrong. “The errors caused by this particular misinterpretation have been legion,” Lentini said. “Such errors have resulted in numerous wrongful prosecutions and numerous improper denials of insurance proceeds.” At the same time, it was discovered that Hannah Quick, a key witness who testified that she saw three men at the scene of the crime, lied.

After hearing exoneration, William Vasquez, who lost his sight in prison because of untreated glaucoma, said: “It’s just like I lost myself in prison, I lost 33 and a half years of my life. I went in at 30, I come out at 65, so…”

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