Michigan to Pay the Wrongfully Convicted?
In June a legislative committee finally approved a bill that would provide wrongfully convicted individuals with some financial compensation after their release. The bill specifies that each individual would receive $60,000 for each year of wrongful incarceration, along with compensation for lost wages, medical expenses and attorney fees.
Michigan is one of a dwindling number of states who do not compensate our wrongfully incarcerated citizens. In addition, current statistics show that we almost certainly have a plethora of wrongfully convicted people in our prison system.
Since 1989, 56 people have been freed from prison after being convicted of crimes they did not commit. Half of those people would be eligible for compensation of somewhere between $30,000 and $2.1 million. According to the Innocence Project, this legislation would put the state well above the nationwide median payout of $24,000 for each year of time served in prison.
It is no secret that Michigan’s economy couldn’t support that kind of financial requirement, which may be one of the reasons that the Governor seems reluctant to back this bill. While Governor Snyder has made no bones about the fact that he wants lawmakers to help wrongfully convicted innocent inmates get back on their feet after release, he has not endorsed this particular bill.
But the bill’s supporters are saying that anything short of this solution would fall short of addressing the issue. And especially in light of the fact that a bill addressing this particular issue was first introduced ten years ago and still has yet to make it through.
The goal here, according to Democratic Senator Steve Bieda, is to recognize the fact that the wrongfully convicted had their freedom wrongly taken from them. Due to the false conviction they lost their job, their standing in the community, their freedom. They will need help reintegrating into society, and getting back on their feet in relative comfort. However it is not, he explained, going to make anyone a billionaire.
Senator Dave Hildenbrand, another supporter of the bill, agrees. He feels that the cost isn’t the real issue, but rather it is a problem of morality. The state, he believes, should be obligated to right their wrongs. It is a moral responsibility, supporters are saying, because freeing an innocent person isn’t enough. The wrongfully convicted need a lot of help getting their lives back in order after a period of wrongful incarceration.
As attorneys who have dedicated our careers to defending the wrongly accused, we couldn’t agree more! Putting an innocent person in prison takes away more than just their freedom. It strips them of their future, their dignity, and their chance at a normal life. Those years are gone, never to be retrieved. Â We wholeheartedly agree that the state who put them there in the first place, should be obligated to help them regain their lives.