15 Times Black Men Escaped Being Killed On Death Row

Brown was found guilty in the triple murder of a 13-year-old girl, her mother and her grandmother in Mississippi in 1995. He was sentenced to death. However, after 26 years on death row, his charges were dismissed after the revealing of a false witness testimony and lack of DNA pinning Brown to the crime. He was exonerated in August 2021, per The Death Penalty Information Center.

Howard was sentenced to death in connection to the 1994 killing of an elderly white woman in Columbus, Mississippi. He spent 26 years on death row before District Attorney Scott Colom pointed out a discrepancy in “bite mark analysis” which drove the case into a guilty verdict. Once DNA testing proved he was innocent, he was released from prison in December 2020 and exonerated by the state Supreme Court the following year, per the Innocence Project.

Banks was tried three times in the murder of a couple he found dead while hunting with his dog in 1974, per the National Registry of Exonerations. In the first trial, Banks was found guilty and sentenced to death. In an appeal, the Georgia Supreme Court granted him a second trial. However, he was convicted again. While on death row, another attorney was able to present new evidence and new witnesses that proved Banks’ innocence and he was given a third trial in 1980. After six years on death row, he was finally freed.

Williams was sentenced to death in the 1982 murder of two young men in south Central Los Angeles. Decades after being sent to death row, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office dismissed the case after finding evidence of police and prosecutorial misconduct. Also, two key witnesses recanted their testimonies after admitting to lying in exchange for mercy in their own cases. Williams case was vacated in 2016, per The National Registry of Exonerations.

The 14-year-old Black boy was convicted by an all-white jury in the murder of two young white girls back in 1944 in South Carolina. His execution was expedited and he was sent to the electric chair. He was the youngest person executed in the nation in the 20th century, per the Equal Justice Initiative. Almost seven decades later, a South Carolina trial court vacated his conviction posthumously.

Simmons was found guilty in the murder of a store clerk inside a liquor store in Oklahoma in 1974, per Norwood Legal. Simmons was sentenced to death but only spent two years on death row before being given an amended sentence of life in prison. Simmons was behind bars for 48 years before new evidence and 14 new alibi witnesses were introduced in his case. His conviction was finally vacated in 2023.

Flowers was sentenced to death after being convicted in the murder of four employees at a Mississippi furniture store in 1996. Flowers spent 24 years on death row until the Supreme Court was discovered that for every one of his six trials, the district attorney purposely removed as many Black jurors as possible, per the Equal Justice Initiative. Flowers’ conviction was vacated and he was released from prison in 2020, maintaining his innocence.

Johnson was given the death penalty after being convicted in the 1996 double murder of a young man and his cousin in Reading, Pennsylvania. Johnson was sentenced to death the following year. However, after 23 years of serving time on death row, a motion to dismiss the charges revealed that prosecutors intentionally hid exculpatory evidence from trial and based their argument on the witness of a police informant, per the Death Penalty Information Center. Johnson’s charges were dismissed in 2020.

Johnson was sentenced to death in 2007 on charges connected to the fatal shooting of a Philadelphia man. Prosecutors falsely linked Johnson to the murder by claiming his baseball cap was found at the scene of the crime with the victim’s blood splattered on it, per the Death Penalty Information Center. It wasn’t until 2015 that a post-conviction legal team discovered the discrepancies and petitioned for a retrial. By May 2020, Johnson was exonerated.

Smith was sentenced to death in the rape and killing of an eight-year-old girl in her Florida home back in 1985. A vague witness description of a Black male suspect and a police sketch led to Smith’s arrest. According to the Innocence Project, demands for DNA testing showed Smith was not connected to the crime but instead, identified the real suspect, Eddie Lee Mosley. After 14 years on death row, Smith died from cancer complications in 2000. Eleven months later, he was exonerated.

Orange was sentenced to death for the murders of four Chicago residents in 1984. Despite his brother admitting to the crime, Orange was convicted based on a confession he claims he gave only after being beaten and tortured by Chicago detectives, per Northwestern’s Pritzker School of Law. After petitioning for post-conviction relief, the Supreme Court ordered an evidentiary hearing that led Orange’s sentence to be vacated. While waiting for a new sentencing, he received a pardon from the governor in 2003.

Hinton was sentenced to death row in a double robbery-murder in 1985. False witness identification, inadequate counsel and an extensive ballistics examination by way of the Equal Justice Initiative proved Hinton was not only innocent but given an unfair trial. He was exonerated in 2015.

Griffin was found guilty of capital murder in the fatal stabbing of a Missouri inmate following a brawl over a television set in 1983. At the time, he was incarcerated for an armed assault. He was convicted in the stabbing based on the testimonies of two inmates who only agreed to speak against Griffin as part of a deal with prosecutors, per the National Registry of Exonerations. In 2007, one of the witnesses recanted his statement. However, it wasn’t until 2011 when the Missouri Supreme Court ordered a new trial. Two years later, Griffin’s charges were dismissed.

Cousin was a teenager when he was sentenced to death in the murder of a Louisiana man in 1996. Detectives falsely claimed two eyewitnesses identified Cousin as an excuse to arrest him. Later, an alibi came forth to prove Cousin wasn’t at the scene of the crime. The mishandling of evidence led the Supreme Court to grant him a new trial. His case was dropped in 1999, per Witness to Innocence.

Kitchen was sentenced to death in the killing of two women and three children on the south side of Chicago back in 1988. He and another man, Marvin Reeves, became suspects after an inmate informant claimed the two committed the murders together, per the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law. He also claimed he was tormented into a confession by detectives. It wasn’t until 2009 when these things were brought to light and a judge agreed to vacate his sentence as well as Reeve’s. Out of the 24 years he spent in prison, he spent 13 on death row.