How to Use exonerate in a Sentence

exonerate

verb
  • Well, the point of all this is not to exonerate Catt.
    — Jennifer Wilson, New Yorker, 28 Sep. 2025
  • Lip-reading won’t exonerate him or prove his guilt.
    — Phil Hay, New York Times, 2 Mar. 2026
  • But the grounds on which he will surely be exonerated are also not in doubt.
    — Fintan O’Toole, The New York Review of Books, 30 Jan. 2020
  • Lorenz's lawyers, who have worked to exonerate him for years, plan to appeal the decision.
    — ABC News, 24 Apr. 2026
  • The film then turns into a story about a father racing to exonerate his child.
    — Nick Romano, EW.com, 30 July 2021
  • Barry Odom goes from exonerated from the entire state, to most beloved guy in the state in the span of a month.
    — Brian Stultz, ajc, 19 Nov. 2017
  • His lawyers have said evidence that could exonerate Spacey was deleted from the phone.
    — Dakin Andone, CNN, 5 July 2019
  • Here is the video with the new angle from Collins that exonerates Mahomes.
    — Pete Grathoff, Kansas City Star, 17 Oct. 2025
  • Hardy said that all the new tests exonerated Swinton leaving the state with no choice but to ask for a nolle on the case.
    — David Owens, courant.com, 1 Mar. 2018
  • But the sketchy way Comey exonerated Clinton still grates on them.
    — Jonathan S. Tobin, National Review, 1 Sep. 2017
  • He was never exonerated for the crime.
    — Tony Plohetski, Austin American Statesman, 26 Sep. 2025
  • Stubbs was exonerated in 2013 after more than a decade in prison.
    — Richard A. Webster, ProPublica, 11 Mar. 2025
  • Dunn is the sixth person to be exonerated in Elkhart after spending years, even decades, in prison.
    — Kristine Phillips, The Indianapolis Star, 29 July 2024
  • No state has exonerated more death row prisoners, 30 men in all.
    — Pamela Colloff, ProPublica, 30 June 2026
  • The fact that he was found guilty does not exonerate all the other past, present and future acts of police brutality.
    — Keith Magee, CNN, 24 May 2021
  • While their convictions were overturned a decade later, the two men were not exonerated.
    — Austin Sanders, Austin American Statesman, 18 Feb. 2026
  • Both Veronique and Tom die in a car crash, but not before Tom exonerates Mie.
    — Rebecca Farley, refinery29.com, 26 Mar. 2018
  • But the drugs aren't likely to play a role in the decision to charge or exonerate the officers who killed the unarmed black man.
    — Ryan Sabalow, sacbee, 22 May 2018
  • She was exonerated of the crime in 2015.
    — Megan Cartwright, MSNBC Newsweek, 22 Aug. 2025
  • Diaz pointed out that his client should not be exonerated because of reasonable doubt around his guilt.
    — Austin Sanders, Austin American Statesman, 19 Feb. 2026
  • But even that came out 23 years after the crime and 10 years after they were exonerated.
    — Addie Morfoot, Variety, 23 June 2024
  • But this cannot stand in the way of learning about Garvey’s true history and exonerating him.
    — Justin Hansford, CNN, 23 Mar. 2023
  • Now that he is exonerated, Carver’s suit is wide-reaching.
    — Ryan Oehrli august 29, Charlotte Observer, 29 Aug. 2025
  • The department released the footage of the shooting that seemed to exonerate Piper within a few hours.
    — Olivia Mitchell, cleveland, 2 July 2021
  • Trump wrote on Truth Social after the news broke, although the delay doesn't exonerate him in the case.
    — Aysha Bagchi, USA TODAY, 2 July 2024
  • That finding goes a long way to exonerate the ancient Rapanui in the case of their own population crash.
    — Kiona N. Smith, Ars Technica, 5 June 2018
  • The answer was no, because Mueller can’t exonerate anyone.
    — Carl Burdette, Baltimore Sun, 9 Aug. 2025
  • Why did Johnson slip through the cracks in both historic and modern efforts to exonerate victims of the trials?
    — Brigit Katz, Smithsonian Magazine, 3 Aug. 2022
  • As for the nine patrolmen who opened fire, they were exonerated of all charges in a 1969 trial.
    — Lorraine Boissoneault, Smithsonian, 7 Feb. 2018
  • Raymond Burr starred as the titular lawyer, who almost always helped exonerate his clients.
    — Victoria Edel, PEOPLE, 16 June 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'exonerate.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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