Louisiana currently provides wrongful conviction compensation to innocent people who were wrongfully convicted and imprisoned for crimes they did not commit. The current law provides $40,000 per year for up to 10 years only. Even if an innocent exoneree was wrongfully imprisoned for more than 10 years, they will only receive compensation for 10 years. Louisiana’s current 10-year cap leaves many exonerees uncompensated for years, sometimes decades, of wrongful imprisonment. Because compensation should reflect the real time that was lost, SB 125 is a practical, measured fix: it expands the cap to 15 years, better aligning compensation with the harm done.

• A cap can mean someone who lost 20+ years receives compensation for only 10.
• Raising the cap to 15 years helps more people receive compensation closer to the time they actually served.

Louisiana has the highest incarceration rate in the world. It has one of the highest rates of wrongful convictions in the United States. And, Louisiana imprisons the wrongfully convicted longer than most other states.

Of the 88 people exonerated in Louisiana, twenty-six served over 25 years. Eight served over 35 years; three over 40 years. Only two states – Massachusetts and Pennsylvania – have imprisoned more innocent people for longer than 40 years.

Just 39 people have been awarded compensation under Louisiana’s Wrongful Conviction Compensation law. This is because innocent people whose convictions have been vacated and dismissed must prove their factual innocence by clear and convincing evidence in a separate legal proceeding. The bar for proving factual innocence is high, making it difficult for many wrongfully convicted individuals to receive compensation. Of those 39, only 8 served fewer than 10 years. That means, under the current law, 31 innocent people will not be compensated for all the years they lost to a wrongful conviction. In fact, of the 763 years collectively served by those 39 men, the current law compensates less than half of the years lost.

Only 372.8 years of those lost years are compensated. That means just 48.8% of the time people spent wrongfully imprisoned is recognized by the state.

WHO THIS BILL WOULD HELP

Most IJLA clients served over 10 years in prison for crimes they did not commit. Many have now reached the current ten-year cap and will not receive any financial assistance from the Innocence Compensation Fund unless SB 125 passes.

MEET HENRY JAMES

Henry James spent 29 years, 10 months, and 27 days imprisoned for a crime he did not commit. In 2011, DNA testing, which did not exist when he was arrested in 1981, proved that he had been misidentified by the single eyewitness in the case. At the time of his release – at age 50 – Mr. James had been wrongfully imprisoned longer than any other innocent person in Louisiana.

The State of Louisiana agreed in 2012 that Mr. James was innocent and should receive compensation from the Innocence Compensation Fund. Because he was wrongfully convicted based on a mistaken eyewitness identification – and not because of provable misconduct by prosecutors or police – he could not sue the State of Louisiana. Compensation from the Innocence Compensation Fund remains the only financial assistance available to Mr. James after nearly 30 years of wrongful imprisonment.

Since his exoneration, Mr. James has worked multiple jobs to make ends meet. He has worked in a nursing home and supported himself with his woodworking. Yet, at age 65 Mr. James is unable to retire because for 30 years he contributed his labor to the prison system for 4 cents/hour. He was not able to pay into Social Security or build a savings.

Last year, Mr. James reached the current 10-year cap on his wrongful conviction compensation. Under the current law, he will receive no more compensation for the nearly twenty additional years he was wrongfully imprisoned.

Unless SB 125 is passed into law, Mr. James and 11 other innocent people who were wrongfully imprisoned for more than a decade will not receive any additional compensation this year for the years they served. Thus, I&JLA strongly supports the passage of this bill.

HOW LOUISIANA COMPARES

Louisiana is among a small group of states with a strict year cap. Many states have no cap at all.