Exonerated inmates often don't have state help

[November 18, 2008]  OMAHA, Neb. (AP) -- Three people recently freed after spending nearly 20 years in prison for a murder they didn't commit face many challenges as they re-enter society: finding jobs and a place to live, achieving financial security and fighting negative perceptions about ex-convicts.

And because they live in Nebraska, they'll likely do so without the state's financial help.

In some states, exonerated inmates are entitled to government compensation, but there's no such law in Nebraska, leaving them to rebuild their lives on their own.

Heather Weigand of the Berkeley, Calif.-based Life After Exoneration Program, which helps the wrongfully convicted get back on their feet, said there's evidence that exonorees experience the same trauma as torture victims and war veterans.

"They're victims that we then re-victimize by not having services available," she said. "We have to right the wrongs, and the government has really failed."

Twenty-five states and the District of Columbia have compensation laws, according to The Innocence Project, a New York-based legal center specializing in wrongful conviction cases.

In Louisiana, for example, exonerated inmates can get $15,000 for each year of incarceration, with a $150,000 cap. California allows $100 per day in compensation; Missouri half that. In Tennessee, there's a total cap of $1 million.

Some state laws also provide compensation for lost wages and offer tuition waivers.

"I think that in the appropriate case, that's exactly what should happen," said attorney Jerry Soucie, who works with the Nebraska Commission on Public Advocacy. "However, we don't have such a law on our books right now."

Soucie represents Thomas Winslow, who was cleared this fall in the 1985 murder of Helen Wilson. He said state lawmakers should consider passing a law to compensate the wrongfully convicted.

But so far, such a measure doesn't appear to have much support among lawmakers.

An aide in Sen. Brad Ashford's office said there's been no indication that legislation to compensate exonorees would be introduced in the session starting Jan. 7. Ashford is chairman of the Legislature's Judiciary Committee, which would have to take up such legislation.

In states without compensation programs, some inmates sue and are awarded millions of dollars.

Doug Stratton, an attorney for Joseph White, who was also recently exonerated in Wilson's murder, said he'll contact all six people wrongfully convicted in the case to see if there's interest in a lawsuit.

The Wilson case was the first time inmates have been freed in Nebraska based on DNA evidence.

Last week, state Attorney General Jon Bruning said DNA evidence conclusively links Bruce Allen Smith of Oklahoma to Wilson's rape and murder.

Smith was among the original suspects in the case, but evidence tested as part of the initial investigation appeared to exclude him as a suspect. Newer DNA tests performed recently showed that the earlier test result was flawed.

Smith died of AIDS in 1992.

Winslow, White and Ada JoAnn Taylor were freed because of the DNA evidence, while the other three were released from prison in 1994, after the completion of their sentences.

Bruning has said he will pursue full pardons for all six.

Since post-conviction DNA testing was first allowed in 1989, the results have exonerated 223 people, according to the Innocence Project, whose figures do not include the six Nebraskans cleared in the Wilson case. Seventeen of those had been on death row.

Most states, including Nebraska, have laws that allow for the testing.

Innocence Project spokesman Eric Ferrero said compensation for wrongful convictions is needed because re-entering society after serving prison time is difficult, even with an exoneration.

"Some people don't have family support or any network of supports when they get out," he said. "They often get out with no money, no job experience -- other than prison jobs -- and they often lack the skills to get reintegrated into society and rebuild their lives."

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On the Net:

The Innocence Project:
http://www.innocenceproject.org/

Life After Exoneration Program:
http://www.exonerated.org/

[Associated Press; By TIMBERLY ROSS]

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