In 2015, a record-breaking number of people were exonerated for crimes they were found to be innocent of after a guilty sentencing and serving time, NBC News reported.
There were a total of 149 people who spent an average of 15 years in prison before being cleared last year, according to a new report out Wednesday from the National Registry of Exonerations, a project at the University of Michigan Law School.
The convictions ranged from low level offenses to major felonies, including 54 murder convictions that were overturned. Five of the convicts were awaiting execution and were saved last year when courts ruled they didn't belong in the prison in the first place.
Of the people wrongly convicted for homicides, the report notes, "more than two-thirds were minorities, including half who were African American."
