There are few worse difficulties than spending years behind a bar for crimes you didn’t commit. Florida prisons are not picnics. They are a tough place full of tough people. Add that you know you don’t deserve to be there. Well, it’s the ultimate grind.
Thankfully, the states do that right most of the time. However, if not, you will need to fix it. It starts with paying for prisoners who have been exonerated for lost time.
In 2008, Florida became one of the first states to create a compensation framework. Those who are accidentally imprisoned can earn up to $50,000 each year at the back of the bar. It barely compensated for erasing someone’s freedom, but it was something. The problem is that Florida’s system is veneer. Most people who are accidentally imprisoned never get money.
National Exemption Registration tracks cases in which individuals are exempt from all charges due to new evidence of innocence. Based on that standard, the registry reports that since 1989, a Florida judge has overturned 91 convictions. Only five people have received an “automatic” financial settlement from the state.
Florida law included some unnecessary requirements. Inmates had to apply within 90 days of release, but this wasn’t as easy as it looked. Clemente Aguirre-Jarquin, for example, spent 14 years in prison for double murder until DNA testing and other person’s crime statements became serious doubt about his guilt. He was granted a new trial in 2016, but Aguirre-Jarquin remained locked up. So the 90-day deadline passed when the state dropped the charges against him just before the retrial. He no longer qualifies for $50,000 a year.
“This allows the prosecutor to make a bad prosecution,” Aguirre-Jarquin said at the time, “because there is no impact.”
The law also allowed prosecutors to challenge compensation. This is a particularly brave barrier, considering it was the prosecutor who put the wrong person in prison, even if they acted in good faith.
The worst part of the 2008 law was the “clean hand” provision, effectively disqualifying those convicted of previous felony. He was able to spend 26 years in prison for a murder that someone had not committed, but the unrelated belief that he had one Quarudo drug decades ago is disqualified from compensation.
That’s exactly what happened to William Michael Dillon, who was falsely convicted in Brevard County in 1982. His cases included witness misconceptions, junk science, self-dealing prison snitches, perjured testimony and manufactured evidence. Still, he didn’t qualify for $50,000 a year for that single Quaalude. It was not justice. It only exacerbated the tragedy.
In 2017, Congress updated the law to disqualify only those who have been previously convicted of a violent felony or multiple non-violent felony. That helped, but it still wasn’t going well enough. Florida has remained the only state in the country with such restrictions. As in 2008, some lawmakers lamented the payments to “career criminals.” There is a simple solution to that. Don’t put people in prison for crimes they didn’t commit.
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When a nation accidentally robs someone’s freedom, it should pay. There is no need for a good citizenship test. No background check is required. The person has already paid the society debt for his previous conviction. $50,000 a year is not a gift for good behavior. It is years of fraudulently lost compensation that has invaded the state. Just give them the money.
Some people denies that they refused automatic compensation. Submit bills for claims, an unpredictable process of asking lawmakers and governors to pay for years of illegal incarceration. You will need an attorney and a lobbyist to file a claim bill, and it can take years. It also often mistakenly forces defendants to break into lawmakers.
The billing bill system feels backwards – and a bit dirty. Hey, we know we put you in jail for the crime that committed you, but before we decide whether to make up for your troubles, why not try a little song and dance for us?
The good news is that there is another opportunity for Congress to remedy this injustice. The bill moving between the House and Senate would eliminate the “clean hands” provision and extend the 90-day deadline to two years. According to Tampa Republican Rep. Traci Koster, the total cost of covering all eligible members would be around $15 million.
Similar bills have failed in recent years. This time lawmakers should push it to the finish line, and Gov. Ron DeSantis needs to sign it into law.
Hands are enough. A dodge with an incredible caliber is enough. The excuse to include “clean hands” offerings were as thin as prison soup in 2008, and did not age for the next few years.
Putting the wrong person in prison is costly. The state must pay.
