News & Events
Wrongful incarceration & criminal justice reform in Tennessee
A know the facts campaign
What the numbers tell us about wrongful convictions here at home, how Tennessee compares to the rest of the country, and why this issue belongs to all of us.
Every so often, a case makes the news that stops us in our tracks: a man walks out of prison after seventeen, twenty-four, even forty-seven years, having spent decades paying for a crime he did not commit. We want to believe these stories are rare. The truth is harder to sit with. Wrongful incarceration is not a fluke of the system. It is a predictable outcome of a system that, without the right safeguards, gets it wrong more often than most of us would like to admit.
This “Know the Facts” campaign is about exactly that: facts. Not fear, not blame, just the numbers and realities of wrongful incarceration here in Tennessee and across the country, so we can all have a clearer, more honest conversation about what justice actually requires.
Fact 1
Tennessee has had only 41 exonerations since 1980 – and that’s not a good sign
Since 1989, Tennessee has recorded just 41 known exonerations through the state courts. On its face, that might sound reassuring. It isn’t. States with justice systems similar in size and structure to Tennessee’s have documented far higher numbers. The low count doesn’t mean fewer mistakes happen here. It means fewer mistakes get caught, because for most of the state’s history, there has been no dedicated legal infrastructure built specifically to find and correct them.
Fact 2
One organization is now responsible for a quarter of all exonerations in state history
Since its founding in 2019, the Tennessee Innocence Project has secured ten exonerations, restoring more than 500 combined years of freedom to people who lost decades to a system that failed them. That accounts for roughly one-quarter of every exoneration in Tennessee’s history, achieved in about six years by a single statewide organization. It’s a number we’re proud of, and one that reveals just how much more work remains.
Fact 3
Nationally, over 3,600 people have been exonerated since 1989
The National Registry of Exonerations, which tracks known wrongful convictions across the country, has documented more than 3,600 exonerations since 1989. Collectively, these individuals lost over 30,000 years of their lives to prison for crimes they did not commit. Every one of those years represents birthdays missed, children who grew up without a parent, and a person whose life was put on hold indefinitely.
Fact 4
In 2025 alone, the Registry added 97 new exonerations nationwide
Wrongful convictions aren’t a relic of the past. As of early 2026, the Registry had already logged 97 exonerations that occurred in 2025, and 84% of those cases involved violent crimes, the category where the stakes of getting it wrong are highest. The prior year, 2024, saw 147 people exonerated after losing an average of 13.5 years each to wrongful imprisonment.
Fact 5
TIP receives 150 to 200 new applications every year, from nearly 40 Tennessee counties
The need for this work is not shrinking. Each year, the Tennessee Innocence Project receives applications from incarcerated Tennesseans spanning close to 40 counties across the state. Every one of those applications represents a person who says they are innocent, and every one deserves careful review by trained legal investigators. Our small staff sorts through these cases as fast as the resources allow, but the caseload keeps growing.
Links & Resources
We are fighting every day to correct these injustices
—but we can’t do it alone.