11 States with Highest Number of Exonerations

8. Pennsylvania

Number of exonerated convicts: 54

Exonerated convict who served the longest time in prison: Lewis Fogle (33 years)

Lewis Fogle spent 33 years in the prison on the charges that he raped and murdered a 15-year old girl. The crime happened in 1976, but the police investigation stalled for next five years. Then, in 1981, an amateur hypnotist hypnotized Earl Elderkin, a man with serious mental conditions who was one of the suspects in the case. Prior to the session, Elderkin gave four different statements to the police about the crime – each time pointing to a different person as the offender. During hypnosis, Elderkin described how Fogle, together with his brother, raped and killed the victim. Moreover, victim’s relatives and a friend changed their statements about events which surrounded the crime in the way that backed up Elderkin’s story. Finally,   the testimonies of three informants who claimed that Fogle had confessed to the rape and the murder to them was decisive factor which led to defendant’s conviction.

During the trial judge excluded Elderkine’s testimony from the evidence while one of the victim’s relatives admitted that she changed the statement because the state police “pressured me and I wanted to go home…they told me that’s the way it was supposed to be.” This was not enough to raise reasonable doubt among jury members. In 1982, Fogle was convicted of second-degree murder and rape and sentenced to life in prison without parole. On numerous occasions, the convict tried to clear his name through DNA testing of crime scene evidence. Finally, in 2010, he was granted the testing but had to wait until 2015 for evidence analysis which showed that DNA profile in sperm cells wasn’t his. After hearing the decision that set him free, Fogle said: “I want the people to know that I did not commit the crime, and a lot of people out there know I did not commit the crime”.

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