ABSTRACT
In 2003, we began interviewing death row exonerees about their post-exoneration lives. Our inquiry was prompted by the substantive growth in academic attention to cases and causes of wrongful convictions of the innocent since the publication of Radelet, Bedau and Putnam's In Spite of Innocence (1992) ten years earlier, and a substantive dearth of attention to the lives and experiences of exonerees after their release from prison. Our examination began with one primary question: what is the impact of a wrongful capital conviction and incarceration on those individuals who have been exonerated and released? Several sub-questions followed: what are the primary issues and obstacles they confront upon release? How do they cope with these issues? How do they rebuild their lives? What factors affect their abilities to cope and rebuild effectively?
