11 States with Highest Number of Exonerations

11. Massachusetts

Number of exonerated convicts: 42

Exonerated convict who served the longest time in prison: James Haley (36 years)

James Haley, 24-year old African-American, was arrested in 1971 on charges that he stabbed and fatally shot David Myers, who was a boyfriend of his sister-in-law. He was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole. Two key witnesses in the trial were Haley’s estranged wife, Brenda Haley, and her sister Gloria Curtis. Both women said that they saw Haley near the apartment before the murder. Moreover, Gloria Curtis claimed that she saw the defendant struggling with the victim and that she heard a gunshot.

No physical evidence pointed to Haley as a murder, but the testimony of two women was a decisive moment that led to the conviction. However, in 2006, Haley discovered that in the first statement they gave to the police, Brenda and Gloria said that they did not see him over a month. Prosecutor intentionally withheld this information from Haley’s lawyer. In 2008, Haley was released from the prison after Superior Court vacated the conviction. A year later he filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against Boston police detectives and city of Boston, hoping for compensation for wrongful imprisonment. The suit was dismissed.

“I don’t care if it was 50 years ago, if somebody did something wrong and someone like me ended up going to prison for over half their life for something they didn’t do, there should be some compensation,’’ Haley commented the court’s decision.

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