Criteria for Cases Listed as Exonerations
The Center on Wrongful Convictions uses the terms “wrongful conviction” and “exoneration” synonymously to describe any case in which a defendant was convicted of a crime and later restored to the status of legal innocence.
While there is an obvious difference between legal innocence and actual innocence — as there is between legal guilt and actual guilt — there is compelling evidence of actual innocence in a substantial majority of wrongful conviction cases.
The cases included on the CWC list are those — and only those — in which there is evidence of actual innocence.
