7) Innocence. Innocent people are on death row and innocent people have been put to death. These are irreversible tragedies. A recent study concludes that 4% of people on death row in America are not guilty. Since 1973, 144 prisoners on death row have been found to be innocent of the crimes for which they were convicted. The Death Penalty Information Centre strongly suspects that ten prisoners who were put to death were wrongly accused and killed.