Compensating people who are unjustly condemned is a difficult sale in some states

Earlier this year, Michael Woolfolk attended a Legislative Committee in Georgia, where legislators considered for the third year if to compensate for the 45 -year -old player during the 19 years that passed behind bars for a murder of 2002 before the charges against him are dismissed.

Behind him sat Daryl Lee Clark, also 45 years old, who spent 25 years in prison for a rule for murder of 1998 that was unemployed by a series of legal and police errors. It was his second attempt to obtain compensation.

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Georgia is one of the 11 states without law on the compensation of persons who are unjustly convicted. People who seek compensation take their cases to the legislature, where they look for a legislator to sponsor a resolution to pay them. Critics say it looks at the process in politics.

Legislators have been considering the legislation to transfer the decision to the judges, but now it is not clear if that will happen this year.

“We need to simply take care of people who have lost so many years of their lives and their ability to earn money, have a job, have a family, create stability,” he told The Associated Press. “Many have the age in which they would look at their savings and, instead, there are none.”

Missouri legislators have sent to the governor a bill that updates the State Compensation Law, and legislatures in Florida and Oregon are also considering updates of their laws. Montana is considering an update of its defeated and Pennsylvania program is among those that, as Georgia, seek to create one.

A complicated process

Of the 1,739 people who presented unjust compensation claims under state laws since 1989, 1,328 received compensation, according to the Law Professor of the George Washington University, Jeffrey Gutman.

That does not include cases in states such as Georgia, which has no law that describes a process.

Since 1995, 12 Georgians have received compensation and at least 11 more have sought it, according to Georgia’s innocence project. Even some people with strong cases were rejected because they could not convince legislators that they were innocent, defenders say.

The latest version of Georgia’s proposal would require people to prove their innocence to an administrative law judge. They could receive $ 75,000 for each year of imprisonment and reimbursement for other costs, such as fines and rates. There would be $ 25,000 for each year of imprisonment waiting for a death sentence.

“The way in which the State has treated these individuals by removing their freedom and freedom and ruining their lives effectively, condemning them unfairly and then not being able to compensate them with an expedition and help them recover, do not feel good with me,” said Democratic Representative Scott Holcomb, a sponsor and former prosecutor of Bill.

If a person was released based on a finding, it was not guilty or based on the error or error of the law is often a conflict point. The defenders say that those who condemned unfairly deserve compensation in any way because they are innocent until it is demonstrated that it is demonstrated, but some legislators hesitate to pay them.

The majority of the Senate Whip Randy Robertson, former deputy of the Sheriff, was the main opponent last year of individual compensation applications and an effort to approve a compensation law. He disagrees with the term “exonerated”, which according to him is used too often in cases where convictions are annulled based on trial errors.

Robertson this year presented a different compensation bill with stricter rules that did not obtain an audience.

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Other states consider changes

Florida is the only state that prevents exoneses with sentences for previous crimes to qualify for compensation, according to an analysis carried out by the defense group The Innocence Project.

Florida’s Republican state senator Jennifer Bradley wants to change that. For the third year, he sponsors a bill to end the rule, arguing that an unrelated charge should not prevent people who were harmed by the State to receive compensation for their “lost freedom.”

A bill in the Oregon Legislature would update a law approved in 2022 that provides exoneses $ 65,000 for each year that were unfairly imprisoned, with the condition that they present a successful request that demonstrates their innocence. The new bill occurs in the midst of criticism that few exerminations have received compensation since the law entered into force.

The Missouri legislature approved recently and sent to the governor a measure that expanded a restitution program for people unjustly convinced for serious crimes. The legislation would increase compensation from $ 100 to $ 179 per day in prison and eliminate the requirement that innocence is demonstrated by DNA analysis.

Many Georgia legislators have said they don’t want to play the judge and expect the state process to change.

If the legislature does not approve a bill before postponing on April 4, Woolfolk and Clark cannot be compensated this year. The camera overwhelmingly approved five requests that could fail in the Senate.

Starting a career at 45 is difficult, said Woolfolk, and missed the education of his children. He said he is tired of trying to convince legislators to help him.

Clark, who has no children, received an ovation standing from the Chamber legislators last year he voted to compensate for him.

This year, his “hope and prayers” is that he also gains help.

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Associated Press Kate Payne’s reporter in Tallahassee, Florida, Claire Rush in Portland, Oregon, and David A. Lieb in Jefferson City, Missouri, contributed to this report.

Kramon and Payne are members of the body of Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America It is a non -profit national service program that places journalists in local writing rooms to inform about undercover issues.