Hi John,

As of 9/3/20, 986 (about 37%) of the exonerations included in the National Registry of Exonerations (NRE) involved no-crime wrongful convictions. But that certainly varies across conviction types. For instance, the NRE identifies 338 exonerations for sexual assault; 84 of them were no-crime cases (about 25%). Of the 23 arson exonerations in the NRE, 13 (about 56%) involved no-crime cases. And of the 289 exonerations in the NRE for child sex abuse, 227 (about 75%) exonerations were in no-crime cases. Each individual case involves a variety of factors that contributed to the wrongful conviction, but false accusation is one way that a no-crime wrongful conviction can occur.