Kentucky lawmakers will, for the third legislative session in a row, consider creating a fund to compensate people who were wrongfully convicted and incarcerated.
If the bill becomes law, people convicted of a felony who are able to prove their innocence will be entitled to $65,000 for each year of incarceration, $75,000 for each year spent on death row and $32,500 for each year spent on parole, post-incarceration supervision or as a registered sex offender. The money would come from the state’s general fund.
Rep. Jason Nemes, a Republican from Middletown, introduced similar legislation the previous two legislative sessions. Lawmakers on the interim joint committee on Judiciary held a hearing on the subject this past summer. Nemes said he’s gotten positive feedback from other lawmakers and believes he has the support to pass the legislation into law.
Nemes is an attorney and a member of the House Judiciary Committee. Last year, he co-sponsored the controversial Safer Kentucky Act that established tougher penalties for some crimes.
To Nemes, establishing a wrongful conviction compensation fund is in line with the rest of his legislative history.
“It’s a question of justice. When someone has committed violent acts repeatedly, they need to be removed from the situation, and then held accountable,” Nemes said. “When someone has been convicted of something they didn’t do, then justice requires that we acknowledge the wrong and pay for the wrong.”
The bill has the support of both the Innocence Project, a national criminal litigation and public policy organization, and the Kentucky Innocence Project, an separate organization that is part of the Department of Public Advocacy.
“We know that our criminal legal system doesn't always get it right, and that wrongful convictions happen,” said Winnie Ye, a state policy advocate at the Innocence Project.
“There's no amount of money, no exact dollar amount that can make up for someone whose freedom was stolen from them. But it's the state's responsibility to try to render restitution.”
Ye said 22 people have been exonerated in Kentucky since 1989.
Ye said that number likely leaves out other cases where innocence hasn’t been proven or where legal technicalities prevent a full exoneration.
“We know that there are definitely more wrongful convictions out there than we know of and we need to do more work to pass policies and provide funding so that we can reveal them and try best to correct them,” Ye said.
How it works
Under the legislation, people who can prove their conviction was vacated, dismissed or reversed at trial would be eligible for a “certificate of innocence” in Circuit Court.
People who received pardons from a governor and can prove they did not commit the underlying crime are also eligible.
Nemes said the law creates the legal process and standards for receiving this certificate, and that wrongfully convicted people will likely turn to legal aid or pro bono attorneys to help make their case.
The payouts proposed in the bill are more than what is currently provided to people wrongfully convicted of federal crimes, who are eligible for $50,000 for each year of incarceration under a law passed in 2004. As of 2022, 14 states plus the District of Columbia pay more than $50,000 a year to exonerees.
In addition to the payouts, wrongfully convicted people would also receive money for reasonable attorneys fees and costs associated with obtaining the certificate of innocence, reimbursement for any restitution, fees or court costs associated with the wrongful conviction and tuition waivers at public colleges in Kentucky.
According to a handout prepared last year by the Kentucky Innocence Project, Kentucky exonerees could be owed a total of $12 million, though the organization said many eligible people would not apply for the compensation.
Wrongfully convicted people must begin the process within two years of an overturned conviction or, for older cases, within two years after the bill becomes law. Any money awarded from a civil settlement against the state or local government agency in connection with a wrongful conviction will be deducted from the total payout a person receives.
Why it's necessary
Michael VonAllmen was arrested in 1981 and sentenced to 35 years for a rape and assault he did not do.
VonAllmen spent 11 years in prison before he was paroled, and another 16 years under the burdensome label of convicted sex offender before he was able to fully clear his name with the help of the Kentucky Innocence Project.
VonAllmen said he had trouble finding work for years after his release due to his status as a convicted felon. He eventually found work as a plumber and started putting his financial life in order, but he said it’s been a long, slow road.
He said this legislation isn’t about making up for lost wages.
“The real harm is the exposure to the criminal justice system. Being in prison, in order to survive, you have to learn how to be hateful, how to discriminate,” VonAllmen said.
A wrongful conviction compensation fund doesn’t undo that harm, VonAllmen said, but it is a first step towards the state taking responsibility for the damage wrongful convictions do.
