Wrongful conviction cases

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  Columbia Daily Tribune parking lot, Columbia, Missouri · 2001

  Death of Kent Heitholt

  Kent Heitholt, a Columbia Daily Tribune sports editor, was beaten and strangled in his newspaper's parking lot in 2001. Two years later, Ryan Ferguson and Charles Erickson were charged based largely on Erickson's uncertain memories and a janitor's testimony; both later recanted, and Ferguson's conviction was vacated in 2013 after courts found prosecutors withheld evidence. The case remains unsolved.

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  Palmdale, California, United States · 2000

  Death of Michelle O'Keefe

  Michelle O'Keefe, an 18-year-old college student and aspiring actress, was shot and killed in a Palmdale, California parking lot in 2000. A man later convicted of the murder, Raymond Lee Jennings, was exonerated in 2016 after evidence pointed to a gang-related killing involving other people present at the scene.

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  Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan · 1966

  Killing of the Hakamada Family (Hakamata Incident)

  In 1966, an executive, his wife, and their two children were found stabbed to death after a fire at their home in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. Former boxer Iwao Hakamada was convicted and sentenced to death in 1968 based on a disputed confession and contested physical evidence; after nearly five decades on death row, DNA testing led to his release in 2014 and acquittal in a 2024 retrial.

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  Ulvila, Finland · 2006

  Killing of Jukka S. Lahti

  In 2006, social psychologist Jukka S. Lahti was killed at his home in Ulvila, Finland; his widow was tried repeatedly and permanently acquitted in 2015, and the case remains unsolved.

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  Pukekawa, Waikato, New Zealand · 1970s

  Killing of Harvey and Jeannette Crewe

  Harvey and Jeannette Crewe, a farming couple, were shot dead in their Pukekawa, New Zealand home around 17 June 1970. Farmer Arthur Allan Thomas was twice convicted of the murders, but a Royal Commission later found police had fabricated evidence to convict him; he was pardoned in 1979. The case remains officially unsolved.

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  Glemmengata 73, Fredrikstad, Norway · 1975

  Liland affair

  Per Kristian Liland was wrongfully convicted in 1970 of a double axe murder in Fredrikstad, Norway, and imprisoned for over two decades before being acquitted in 1994 in one of Norway's most notable miscarriages of justice.

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  Pukekawa, Waikato, New Zealand · 1970

  Pukekawa: The Eyre Murder and the Crewe Murders

  The small Waikato farming settlement of Pukekawa, New Zealand, was the site of two nationally notorious killings decades apart: the 1920 shooting death of farmer Sydney Eyre, for which Samuel Thorn was convicted and hanged, and the 1970 killings of Harvey and Jeannette Crewe, for which Arthur Allan Thomas was twice wrongly convicted, later pardoned and compensated.

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  Bangkok, Thailand (body found in Samut Prakan Province) · 1986

  Murder of Sherry Ann Duncan

  Sherry Ann Duncan, a 16-year-old student, was abducted and murdered in Bangkok in 1986. Four men were wrongly convicted and sentenced to death before being acquitted in 1995 after evidence emerged of false testimony and coerced confessions; two other men were later convicted of the actual murder.

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  Sleepy Lagoon reservoir, near Maywood/Commerce/Bell, California · 1942

  Death of José Gallardo Díaz (Sleepy Lagoon murder)

  José Gallardo Díaz, a young Mexican-American man, was found gravely injured near a reservoir in the Los Angeles area on August 2, 1942, and died without regaining consciousness; seventeen Mexican-American youths were arrested and tried, with twelve convicted, before an appeals court overturned all convictions in 1944 for insufficient evidence and judicial bias.

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