Andrew Sullivan posted a Barack Obama speech at Howard University that included this striking claim:

Because when I was a state senator in Illinois we have a death penalty system that had sent 13 innocent people to their death–13 innocent men that we know.

My understanding is that it’s never been proven that any person who was executed in recent years in this country was innocent. Am I wrong? Or is Obama referring to people he thinks were innocent?

Update 10/2 12:42 PM: In comments, Dave White points out that Obama’s prepared remarks say that Illinois had “a death penalty system that had sent thirteen innocent people to death row. Thirteen innocent men that we know of.” So either Obama misspoke or Sullivan’s transcript is wrong. I’ve updated the title above.