While the average time spent in prison for all of the exonerees in the National Registry of Exonerations is just over nine years, there have been some prisoners who spent an extraordinary amount of time imprisoned for crimes they did not commit. The Registry calculates prison time from the date of conviction. Therefore, our calculations exclude time spent incarcerated prior to conviction. The following is a list of the exonerees who spent at least 25 years in prison prior to exoneration.
Name Time Incarcerated Sentence Incarcerated State
Mark Denny 28 years, 10 months, 6 days Term of Years - New York
George Perrot 29 years, 1 months, 29 days Life - Massachusetts
Clifford Jones 29 years, 2 months, 0 days Term of Years - New York
Michael McAlister 28 years, 7 months, 17 days Term of Years - Virginia
Anthony Hinton 28 years, 6 months, 14 days Death - Alabama
Johnnie Savory 29 years, 5 months, 18 days Term of Years - Illinois
Glenn Ford 29 years, 3 months, 5 days Death - Louisiana
Timothy Johnson 28 years, 11 months, 25 days Life - Georgia
Robert Nelson 28 years, 6 months, 0 days Term of Years - Missouri
Randolph Arledge 28 years, 10 months, 15 days Term of Years - Texas
George Allen 29 years, 3 months, 22 days Term of Years - Missouri
Henry James 29 years, 5 months, 13 days Life without parole - Louisiana
Hayes Williams 28 years, 10 months, 13 days Life - Louisiana
Raymond Towler 28 years, 7 months, 15 days Life - Ohio
Joseph Salvati 28 years, 6 months, 6 days Life - Massachusetts
Vance Hardy 29 years, 4 months, 19 days Life - Michigan
James Marshall 28 years, 0 months, 23 days Term of Years - Illinois
James Kelly 27 years, 10 months, 26 days Life without parole - Pennsylvania
Adolfo Rosario 28 years, 5 months, 4 days Term of Years - Illinois
Daniel Gwynn 28 years, 3 months, 27 days Death - Pennsylvania
Gerardo Cabanillas 27 years, 8 months, 29 days Term of Years - California
Larry Moses 27 years, 7 months, 12 days Life without parole - Louisiana
Adam Carmon 27 years, 8 months, 5 days Term of Years - Connecticut
Frank Gable 28 years, 0 months, 1 days Life without parole - Oregon
Patrick Brown 28 years, 4 months, 22 days Life without parole - Louisiana
Lamar Johnson 27 years, 7 months, 3 days Life without parole - Missouri
Johnny Flores 27 years, 10 months, 26 days Term of Years - Illinois
Corey Atchison 28 years, 1 months, 2 days Life - Oklahoma
Demond Weston 27 years, 7 months, 26 days Term of Years - Illinois
James Gibson 27 years, 6 months, 9 days Life without parole - Illinois
Steven Chaney 27 years, 9 months, 27 days Life - Texas
Arthur Brown 27 years, 6 months, 22 days Life without parole - Illinois
Clarence Moses-EL 27 years, 8 months, 14 days Term of Years - Colorado
Lawrence William Lee 27 years, 6 months, 13 days Death - Georgia
Christopher Abernathy 28 years, 0 months, 27 days Life without parole - Illinois
David McCallum 27 years, 11 months, 19 days Term of Years - New York
James Shortt 27 years, 7 months, 2 days Life without parole - California
John Jerome White 27 years, 6 months, 7 days Life - Georgia
Steven Crawford 27 years, 9 months, 26 days Life - Pennsylvania
Ralph Armstrong 28 years, 4 months, 26 days Life - Wisconsin
Louis Costilla 26 years, 10 months, 3 days Term of Years - Ohio
Joseph Rickard 26 years, 10 months, 2 days Term of Years - Ohio
Gerald Reed 27 years, 3 months, 17 days Life without parole - Illinois
Dwayne Williams 26 years, 10 months, 19 days Life without parole - Louisiana
Armond McCloud 26 years, 10 months, 12 days Term of Years - New York
Evaristo Salas 26 years, 7 months, 27 days Term of Years - Washington
Cordell Williams 27 years, 3 months, 19 days Life without parole - Illinois
Leroy Nelson 26 years, 7 months, 18 days Life without parole - Louisiana
Bernell Juluke 26 years, 7 months, 18 days Life without parole - Louisiana
Kunta Gable 26 years, 7 months, 18 days Life without parole - Louisiana
TOTAL: 329