Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/14pdf/14-7955_aplc.pdf
Page Number: 55

Cite as:  576 U. S. ____ (2015) 

5 

BREYER, J., dissenting 

based  on  actual  innocence.    All  had  been  imprisoned  for
more  than  30  years  (and  one  for  almost  40  years)  at  the
time of their exonerations.  National Registry of Exonera­
tions, Exonerations in 2014, p. 2 (2015). 

The  stories  of  three  of  the  men  exonerated  within  the 
last  year  are  illustrative.  DNA  evidence  showed  that 
Henry Lee McCollum did not commit the rape and murder
for  which  he  had  been  sentenced  to  death.    Katz  &  Eck­
holm,  DNA  Evidence  Clears  Two  Men  in  1983  Murder, 
N. Y.  Times,  Sept.  3,  2014,  p.  A1.    Last  Term,  this  Court 
ordered that Anthony Ray Hinton, who had been convicted 
of murder, receive further hearings in state court; he was 
exonerated earlier this year because the forensic evidence
used  against  him  was  flawed.  Hinton  v.  Alabama,  571 
U. S.  ___  (2014)  (per  curiam);  Blinder,  Alabama  Man  on 
Death  Row  for  Three  Decades  Is  Freed  as  State’s  Case 
Erodes,  N. Y.  Times,  Apr.  4,  2014,  p.  A11.    And  when 
Glenn Ford, also convicted of murder, was exonerated, the 
prosecutor admitted that even “[a]t the time this case was 
tried  there  was  evidence  that  would  have  cleared  Glenn 
Ford.”  Stroud,  Lead  Prosecutor  Apologizes  for  Role  in 
Sending  Man  to  Death  Row,  Shreveport  Times,  Mar.  27,
2015.  All three of these men spent 30 years on death row 
before being exonerated.  I return to these examples infra. 
Furthermore,  exonerations  occur  far  more  frequently
where  capital  convictions,  rather  than  ordinary  criminal
convictions, are at issue.  Researchers have calculated that 
courts  (or  State  Governors)  are  130  times  more  likely  to 
exonerate a defendant where a death sentence is at issue. 
They  are  nine  times  more  likely  to  exonerate  where  a 
capital  murder,  rather  than  a  noncapital  murder,  is  at 
issue.  Exonerations 2012 Report 15–16, and nn. 24–26. 

Why is that so?  To some degree, it must be because the
law  that  governs  capital  cases is more  complex.    To  some 
degree, it must reflect the fact that courts scrutinize capi­
tal cases more closely.  But, to some degree,  it likely also