Exonerations

Kennedy Brewer, exonerated in 2008. Image via Innocence Project.

Exoneration, or a criminal conviction being overturned, is not a common occurrence. Mississippi has exonerated twenty-six people since 1980. Six of these have been individuals sentenced to death.

Sherwood Brown, exonerated in 2021. Image via Brown’s GoFundMe.

Sabrina Butler, exonerated in 1995. Image via The National Registry of Exonerations.

Curtis Flowers, exonerated in 2020. Image via MPR News.

  • Sabrina Butler was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death on March 14th, 1990. She was retried in 1992 and, after a three year appeal process, acquitted in 1995. Butler was awarded $329,000 by the state.

    Via The National Registry of Exonerations.

  • Kennedy Brewer was convicted of capital murder and sexual battery on March 24th, 1995. He received the death sentence. DNA testing led Brewer’s conviction to be overturned in 2001, as well as to the identification of Justin Albert Johnson as the murderer. Brewer was officially exonerated on February 15th, 2008.

    Via Innocence Project.

  • Willie Manning was convicted of two counts of capital murder in 1994 and two additional counts in 1996. He was sentenced to death in both cases. Manning was granted a stay of execution in 2013. In 2015, DNA evidence exonerated him for the first set of murders. He remains on death row for the second set.

    Via The National Registry of Exonerations.

  • Curtis Flowers was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death on October 17th, 1997. He was subsequently convicted of another count of capital murder and sentenced to death again on March 30th, 1999. Flowers and his legal team then appealed and sought post-conviction relief a number of times. In total, Flowers was tried six times before, in 2020, having all murder chargers dropped. He was awarded $500,000 by the state and is in the process of bringing suit against police officers involved in his cases.

    Via The National Registry of Exonerations.

  • Eddie Howard was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death in 1994. His conviction, like Kennedy Brewer’s, was based largely on bite mark evidence. Howard was exonerated on January 8th, 2021 by the Mississippi Supreme Court.

    Via Innocence Project.

  • Sherwood Brown was convicted of three counts of capital murder in 1995. He was sentenced to death for one murder and received two life sentences for the others. A combination of new DNA evidence and the discrediting of bite mark evidence led to Brown’s August 24th, 2021 exoneration.

    Via Death Penalty Information Center.