According to a report by the National Registry of Exonerations, a record high number of 87 men and women who were wrongfully convicted of crime in the United States were exonerated in 2013. The National Registry of Exonerations is a joint program of the University of Michigan Law School and the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University School of Law. According to the study, nearly one in five of the 2013 exonerees had initially pleaded guilty to the charges filed against them—usually because the defendant was offered a plea bargain that guaranteed a lesser sentence. Of the 87 exonerations in 2013, 40 were based on murder convictions. There have been approximately 1,300 exonerations documented by the organization in the United States since 1989.
Since its founding in 2001, NCIP has attained justice for 17 innocent people – including three in 2013 alone – who had collectively served over 215 years in prison.
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