'I feel forgiveness': Daniel Gwynn on life after 30 years on death row

Daniel Gwynn spent 30 years on death row for a murder he did not commit. In an interview with FRANCE 24, the Pennsylvania man, exonerated in 2024 after his conviction was found to be deeply flawed, said he now feels "forgiveness" towards those who wronged him – but that the state has offered him "not even an apology".

Speaking to FRANCE 24, Daniel Gwynn described his release in February 2024 as "unreal", saying it took him weeks to accept that he was free after three decades awaiting execution for a 1994 murder.

His conviction rested in part on a confession he said was coerced by Philadelphia detectives – one that "did not match the crime scene evidence at all". A photo lineup that could have cleared him surfaced only 15 years later, but courts ruled it came too late to overturn his conviction.

Gwynn said he "didn't have no hope" at first, and began to heal only after taking up painting.

'A deliberate assault on the Black community'

Gwynn said his years on death row exposed what he called "a deliberate assault on the Black community", pointing to the many Black men he saw imprisoned and later exonerated.

Pennsylvania, however, has offered him nothing for those lost decades. "There is no compensation in the state of Pennsylvania," he said, adding that he now hopes to file a petition seeking redress.

Now touring Europe to speak out against the death penalty, Gwynn said he feels "so blessed". "I'm just a humble servant of God," he said.