The FailureFailure
When the wrong man is convicted, the real offender stays free
The short answer
What happens to the real offender when the wrong person is convicted?
A wrong-person conviction leaves the real offender at liberty. The Innocence Project’s summary of the first 375 DNA exonerations in the United States, from 1989 to 2020, lists 165 actual assailants identified. They went on to be convicted of 154 additional violent crimes, including 36 murders, while the innocent sat behind bars for the earlier offenses.16
Stat · The Failure
Counted by the Innocence Project
- DNA exonerations375
- Actual assailants identified165
- Later violent crimes154
Data table
| Measure | Value | Kind | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| DNA exonerations | 375 | Count | |
| Actual assailants identified | 165 | Count | |
| Later violent crimes | 154 | Count |
Who was Aleksandr Kravchenko?
Yelena Zakotnova, 9, did not come home from school in Shakhty, in Russia’s Rostov region, on December 22, 1978.23 She was found dead two days later.23 Police detained Aleksandr Kravchenko, who lived nearby and had served a sentence for a similar crime committed in 1970, when he was 17.234
His wife and a friend of hers told police he had come home at about six that evening, and he was released.23 Later he was detained over a theft, the two women changed their statements, and he confessed.23
In court he withdrew his statements and said they had been obtained under pressure.24 The Rostov regional court sentenced him to death on August 16, 1979, and that November the case was sent back for further investigation.23 In 1982, after a third hearing, the court sentenced him to death again.23 He was executed on July 5, 1983.23
In 1991 the Supreme Court annulled the conviction.23 Komsomolskaya Pravda reports that his mother learned of his death only then, and that he was rehabilitated posthumously.3
Is Yelena Zakotnova’s murder solved?
No. Officially, her murder is unsolved. Aleksandr Kravchenko was executed for it in 1983, and his conviction was annulled in 1991. Andrei Chikatilo was convicted of it in 1992, and Russia’s Supreme Court later found that count unproven. Both convictions were set aside, and no one stands convicted of her murder.234
In 1992 the Rostov regional court convicted Andrei Chikatilo of her murder.34 At trial he had retracted his confession to it.23 Russia’s Supreme Court found that the count rested on that confession without other indisputable evidence, and removed it as unproven.24 Lenta.ru, which reviewed the case archive, dates the ruling to June 30, 1993.4
The state convicted two men of this murder and set both convictions aside.23 Komsomolskaya Pravda reports that her case was split off and sent to the archive, and that the question of who killed her remains open.3
How often does the real offender commit more crimes?
The Innocence Project’s summary of the first 375 DNA exonerations in the United States, from 1989 to 2020, lists 165 actual assailants identified. Those people went on to be convicted of 154 additional violent crimes, including 83 sexual assaults, 36 murders and 35 other violent crimes.1
The Innocence Project tracked DNA exonerations across the United States until the total reached 375 in 2020.1 Its summary lists 165 actual assailants identified, who went on to be convicted of 154 additional violent crimes, including 83 sexual assaults, 36 murders and 35 other violent crimes, while the innocent sat behind bars for their earlier offenses.1
The organization’s current figures cover its own cases.5 As of April 14, 2026, it counts 89 people identified who actually committed the crime, out of 257 client exonerations and releases.5 It counts 101 additional violent crimes committed while an innocent person was imprisoned in the original attacker’s place, including 56 sexual assaults, 22 murders and 23 other violent crimes.5
In a peer-reviewed study, Robert Norris and four colleagues examined cases in which DNA cleared the innocent and identified the guilty.6 They found 109 true perpetrators, 102 of whom committed additional crimes, and counted 337 additional offenses, including 43 homicide-related offenses and 94 sex offenses.6
How is the real offender found after a wrong conviction?
In the Kravchenko case, the challenge came from outside the file. An investigator from the later murder inquiry challenged the conviction.24 Diletant’s account says the Supreme Court turned down his first two challenges before it annulled the conviction in 1991.2
By the Innocence Project’s count, the real perpetrator had been identified for 180 of the DNA exonerees, half of the total, as of August 22, 2018.1 In 137 cases the identification came from a cold database hit, as of October 19, 2018.1
Confession is one route to a wrong verdict. The Innocence Project counted 102 DNA exonerations involving false confessions as of July 24, 2018, and the real perpetrator was identified in 76 of them.1 It attributes 48 additional crimes with convictions, including 25 murders, to perpetrators in those cases.1
The rule
A wrong conviction closes the case on paper and leaves the real offender at liberty.
Questions
Was Aleksandr Kravchenko exonerated?
- Yes. Kravchenko was executed on July 5, 1983, for the murder of Yelena Zakotnova, 9. The Supreme Court annulled his conviction in 1991. Komsomolskaya Pravda reports that he was rehabilitated posthumously and that his mother learned of his death only then.23
Who killed Yelena Zakotnova?
- Officially, no one has been identified. Two convictions for her murder were set aside: Aleksandr Kravchenko’s in 1991, and the count against Andrei Chikatilo, which Russia’s Supreme Court found unproven. Her murder is officially unsolved.234
How many DNA exonerations identified the actual perpetrator?
- The Innocence Project reports that 180 of the DNA exonerees in the United States, 50 percent, had the real perpetrator identified in their cases as of August 22, 2018. In 137 cases the identification came through a cold database hit, as of October 19, 2018.1
What crimes did actual perpetrators commit while innocent people were in prison?
- By the Innocence Project’s count for 1989 to 2020, identified actual assailants went on to be convicted of 154 additional violent crimes, including 83 sexual assaults, 36 murders and 35 other violent crimes. A 2020 peer-reviewed study found 337 additional offenses committed by 102 of the 109 true perpetrators it identified.16
How many new crimes follow wrongful convictions each year?
- Robert Norris and colleagues estimated that the wrong-person wrongful convictions that occur each year may lead to more than 41,000 additional crimes. The figure is the authors’ extrapolation from a set of DNA exoneration cases, published in Criminology & Public Policy in 2020. It is an estimate, not a count.6
The record
Sources
Innocence Project, “DNA Exonerations in the United States (1989 – 2020),” static summary of the first 375 DNA exonerations nationwide (page published Jun 22, 2023, last modified Oct 2, 2024, per the page’s own metadata; some figures carry their own “as of” dates in 2018). Supports: tracking ended at 375 in 2020; 165 actual assailants identified and their 154 later violent crimes; the 2018 figures on identification and false confessions.
Diletant, “The Trial: The Case of Aleksandr Kravchenko” (Jan 27, 2018), in Russian, title translated; adapted from the Echo of Moscow radio program “Ne tak” with Alexei Kuznetsov and Sergei Buntman. Supports: the disappearance and the date, the case against Kravchenko, his sentences and execution, the 1991 annulment, both convictions set aside, the Supreme Court’s reasoning on the count against Chikatilo.
Gennady Vetrov, Komsomolskaya Pravda (Kherson edition), article on the case of Aleksandr Kravchenko (Mar 26, 2026), in Russian. Its headline and page title repeat a claim about the murder that Russia’s Supreme Court found unproven, and are omitted here. Supports: the disappearance and the date, the case against Kravchenko, his sentences and execution, the 1991 annulment, his posthumous rehabilitation, the 1992 count and its exclusion, the unsolved status.
Igor Nadezhdin, “How Chikatilo was tried: the trial in documents from the archives” (Lenta.ru, Nov 22, 2020; updated May 10, 2021), in Russian, title translated and shortened; the headline opens with a quotation of the defendant, omitted here. Based on archive trial records. Supports: Kravchenko’s detention and his retraction in court, the October 1992 verdict, the Supreme Court’s removal of the count for lack of proof and the date it reports for that ruling, the later investigator’s challenge.
Innocence Project, “Our Impact: By the Numbers” (“Numbers stated are current as of April 14, 2026”; page last modified Apr 14, 2026). Supports: 89 people who committed the crime identified among 257 client exonerations and releases; 101 additional violent crimes.
Robert J. Norris, Jennifer N. Weintraub, James R. Acker, Allison D. Redlich and Catherine L. Bonventre, “The criminal costs of wrongful convictions: Can we reduce crime by protecting the innocent?” Criminology & Public Policy 19(2), May 2020 (online Sep 2, 2019), pp. 367-388, DOI 10.1111/1745-9133.12463. Abstract as deposited in the Crossref record (the publisher’s page refused the request). Supports: 109 true perpetrators, 102 with additional crimes, 337 additional offenses, the 41,000 estimate.
Educational analysis. Adjudicated cases only. Victims named with respect.