If you get sentenced to life in prison and exonerated after 20 years you don't get those years back but you do get to be free for the rest of your life. If you'

If you get sentenced to life in prison and exonerated after 20 years you don't get those years back but you do get to be free for the rest of your life. If you're executed and then exonerated 15 years after the fact you're still dead. I think you can also get awarded up to something like 50-100k per year of wrongful imprisonment (though that hardly comes close to compensating you for the damage that would have caused)