Innocence Project: Stories of the exonerated

This week on 60 Minutes, Byron Pitts interviewed seven men who spent nearly half their lives in jail. The men were all convicted based on false confessions.

Pictured, left to right: James Harden, Jonathan Barr, Michael Saunders, Robert Taylor, Vincent Thames, Harold Richardson and Terrill Swift.

Watch Pitts' report ''The False Confession Capital.''

Today, the men are free -- exonerated with the help of several Chicago attorneys and the Innocence Project.

The Innocence Project has helped exonerate 300 wrongfully convicted men nationwide, with the use of DNA testing.

Terrill Swift, seen here, served 12 years of a 30-year prison sentence for rape and murder.

Watch Pitts' report ''The False Confession Capital.''

Robert Taylor, seen here hugging his grandmother, served 15 years of an 80-year sentence for rape and murder.

"That whole ordeal, it done something to every last one of us," Taylor said during an interview with other exonerated men. "And with me, it made me numb."

Watch Pitts' report ''The False Confession Capital.''

In 1987, Michael Morton was convicted of brutally murdering his wife.

The Innocence Project won permission to do DNA testing on a bloody bandana found near the crime scene. The results led to his exoneration.

He spent nearly 25 years of his life behind bars.

Morton appeared in Lara Logan's March 2012 report ''Evidence of Innocence.''

Lara Logan: What was it like for you to walk from the court a free man?

Michael Morton: It was so alien at first. It wasn't quite real. We stepped out of the courtroom and it was a beautiful sunny day. The sun felt so good on my face, on my skin. I can just feel like I was just drinking in the sunshine.

Watch Logan's March 2012 report ''Evidence of Innocence.''

Damon Thibodeaux is the 300th person exonerated through DNA testing.

Thibodeaux was sentenced to death for the New Orleans-area murder of his half-cousin Crystal Champagne. He spent 15 years on death row before his exoneration in Sept. 2012.

The Innocence Project co-director Barry Scheck, right, shakes the hand of Thibodeaux.

The Innocence Project co-director Barry Scheck applauds the exoneration of Damon Thibodeaux.

James Woodard was imprisoned in 1981, convicted in the murder of his girlfriend, who had been raped and strangled.

For nearly 30 years, he never gave up writing letters and filing motions.

Woodard was interviewed for Scott Pelley's 2008 report ''Exonerated.''

After 27 years in prison, the Innocence Project of Texas helped Woodard's exoneration through DNA testing.

"I'm speechless. That's about it. You'll have to give me a minute to gather myself," said Woodard upon hearing the good news.

Watch Pelley's report ''Exonerated.''

Kennedy Brewer was sentenced to death in Mississippi for raping and killing his girlfriend's three-year-old daughter.

Skepticism surrounding the forensic evidence that helped convict Brewer -- bite marks on the child's body -- was the subject of Steve Kroft's 2002 report ''Forensic Evidence.''

In 2001, DNA tests proved Brewer did not commit the crime, but prosecutors wanted to retry Brewer and he remained in jail for over five more years.

After an Innocence Project investigation led to an alternate suspect in the case, Brewer became the first person to be exonerated through post-conviction DNA testing in Mississippi in 2008.

He served seven years on death row and eight years in jail awaiting trial.

Watch Steve Kroft's 2002 report ''Forensic Evidence.''

The case of Ron Williamson, seen here, and Dennis Fritz was the subject of John Grisham's only non-fiction book, "The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town."

Williamson, a former baseball player with the Oakland A's, was sentenced to death for the murder of 21-year-old cocktail waitress Debra Sue Carter in Ada, Okla.

Dennis Fritz, seen here, was found guilty of Carter's murder and sentenced to life in prison.

After 11 years of wrongful incarceration, Williamson and Fritz were exonerated and released in April 1999. At one point, Williamson had come within five days of execution.