Who was the first American on death row exonerated by DNA evidence?`

Kirk Bloodsworth was the first American on death row to be exonerated and freed from prison by DNA test evidence. Bloodsworth's ordeal serves as an inspiration to many of those who feel they have been wrongly convicted. Bloodworth was convicted of the brutal rape and murder of a nine year old girl in 1985. He was exonerated with DNA finger printing evidence.

Bloodsworth was released in 1993 after almost nine years in prison. But, it was not until 2003, nearly a decade after Bloodsworth's release, that prisoner DNA evidence added to U.S. state and federal databases identified the real killer, Kimberly Shay Ruffner. Subsequently, in 2004, Ruffner pleaded guilty to the 1984 murder for which Bloodsworth had been wrongfully convicted and served two years on death row.