Cleared by DNA
Convictions that DNA evidence later undid, and the years each person lost before the science caught up.
For most of the twentieth century a confession or a bite-mark comparison could send someone to prison for life. DNA profiling, refined from the mid-1980s on, gave courts a way to test those verdicts against physical evidence. In case after case, the evidence did not match the person who had been convicted.
Each file here turned on that test. Some people were freed only after decades: Peter Sullivan served 38 years in England before DNA cleared him in 2025; Sean Hodgson served 27. In others — Cardiff, Ashikaga, Hwaseong — the same science that exonerated one person eventually pointed to another.
These are not stories of clever detection. They are records of what it costs when a system is certain and wrong, and of the narrow, technical margin by which the record was finally corrected.
6 stops, in order
OVERTURNED AudioWrongful conviction of Peter SullivanFearnley Road, off Borough Road, Birkenhead, Merseyside · 1987 · 2 to watch & hearDNA exonerated Sullivan in 2025 after 38 years, the longest such wait recorded in England.
Teresa de Simone — Credit: Hampshire Police page 3Editorial useSourceSOLVED AudioMurder of Teresa De SimoneTom Tackle public house, Commercial Road, Southampton, England · 1979 · 1 thing to watch or hearSean Hodgson served 27 years; 2009 DNA testing of surviving swabs quashed his conviction.
Beaum Vape, 7 James Street, Cardiff, CF10 5ER — Credit: Seth WhalesCC BY-SA 4.0SourceSOLVED AudioMurder of Lynette WhiteJames Street, Butetown, Cardiff, Wales · 1988 · 1 thing to watch or hearThe 'Cardiff Three' were wrongly convicted; DNA later cleared the case and found the real killer.
Watarase~river — Credit: ホッカイロCC BY 2.5SourceOVERTURNED AudioAshikaga murder caseAshikaga, Tochigi Prefecture, Japan · 1990 · 1 thing to watch or hearToshikazu Sugaya, convicted on early DNA typing, was exonerated by retesting after 17 years.
Joam-ri, Hwaseong district — rural fields — Credit: Muller504, via Wikimedia CommonsCC BY-SA 3.0SourceSOLVED AudioHwaseong serial murdersHwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea · 1980s · 1 thing to watch or hearA man wrongly imprisoned for a killing later matched by DNA to the actual serial offender.
Baneheia search — Credit: RoghueCC BY-SA 3.0SourceViggo Kristiansen's conviction was overturned after the DNA case against him collapsed.