Prison Nation: Posters on the Prison Industrial Complex

58. Sentenced to Death by Mistake Center on Wrongful Convictions Offset, 2002 Chicago, IL Photo by Loren Santow Verneal Jimerson (in photo) and Dennis Williams were African-American men sent to death row for the murder of a young white couple in 1979. In 1996, three journalism students found the real killer who had been identified to the police at the time of the crime. Police used perjured testimony to win convictions against Williams and Jimerson. Jimerson and 14 others were photographed by Loren Santow on March 31, 1997 for a poster series called "Nine Lives." At the time, there were nine men on Death Row in Illinois who were later exonerated. By 2012, there have been more than 300 DNA exonerations nationwide.