Record number of convicts exonerated of crimes in US

The number of people who have been exonerated from their criminal convictions in the US hit a record high in 2015, due largely to district attorneys in places such as Houston, Dallas, and Brooklyn, New York, setting up units to review cases where the legal system may have acted unjustly, a report has found.

There were 149 known exonerations in 2015, where the person served on average more than 14 years in prison, according to the report from the National Registry of Exonerations.

That topped the previous recorded high of 139 in 2014.