The Florida Senate on Thursday unanimously approved a bill in a years-long effort to make it easier for people who have been wrongfully incarcerated to receive compensation from the state.
Lawmakers passed a compensation program in 2008, but the law included what is known as a “clean hands” provision that makes exonerees who were previously convicted of certain felonies ineligible for the compensation.
The restriction has excluded the vast majority of exonerees from receiving money. The bill (SB 130) would do away with the clean hands provision. Bill sponsor Jennifer Bradley, R-Fleming Island, said that only five exonerees received compensation in the 17 years since the law was enacted, while 18 exonerees were denied payments.
Six people who were exonerated have waited at least a decade for compensation, according to Bradley.
“Part of that privilege of being able to come up here (to the Legislature) and represent our constituents is the duty that comes with that, to be able to right wrongs, to be able to stand up for the people of the state of Florida who have been wronged,” Bradley said, calling the bill “the right and just thing for a state to do who has taken people’s liberty.”
According to the National Registry of Exonerations, 91 people in Florida have been exonerated since 1989. Under the 2008 law, exonerees found innocent by the court that convicted them are eligible for $50,000 for each year they served in prison.
The compensation is capped at $2 million. Bradley’s bill also would extend from 90 days to two years the length of time exonerees can seek compensation from the state and set up a process to allow exonerees to repay the state if they receive civil settlements.
An identical House bill (HB 59) is ready to go to the full House.