Bennie Starks (left) of Chicago spent 20 years in prison after being convicted of rape. DNA evidence pointed to another man, and charges against Starks were dropped May 15.

(AP) and [MORE] WASHINGTON - More than 2,000 people who were falsely convicted of serious crimes have been exonerated in the United States in the past 23 years, according to a new archive compiled at two universities.

There is no official record-keeping system for exonerations of convicted criminals in the country, so academics set one up. The new national registry, or database, painstakingly assembled by the University of Michigan Law School and the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University School of Law, is the most complete list of exonerations ever compiled. The leading causes of wrongful convictions include perjury, flawed eyewitness identification and prosecutorial misconduct (by products of white supremacy-bw). 

The database compiled and analyzed by the researchers contains information on 873 exonerations for which they have the most detailed evidence. The researchers are aware of nearly 1,200 other exonerations, for which they have less data. Of these, 885 have profiles developed for the registry's website  exonerationregistry.org.