New bid begins to amend Florida's restrictive compensation law for the wrongfully incarcerated
Republican state Rep. Traci Koster via Florida House
In 2008, Florida became one of the first states in the nation to create a framework to provide financial compensation for individuals wrongfully convicted of a crime. The legislation called for eligible exonerees to receive $50,000 for each year they were wrongfully incarcerated.
Since then, just a handful of exonerees have received such compensation, due to a 'clean hands' provision in state law that bans people who have had earlier unrelated felonies from filing a compensation claim — the only such restriction of its type in the country.
Tampa Bay House Republican Traci Koster has attempted in the past three sessions to get the Legislature to remove that 'clean hands' provision, to no success. She's back again for 2025, and her proposal (HB 59) passed unanimously in the House Criminal Justice Subcommittee on Wednesday.
In addition to removing the clean-hands language, Koster told lawmakers the bill would extend the filing deadline for those who have been exonerated from 90 days to two years, and would give those individuals the choice to receive compensation through either a civil lawsuit or through the Victims of Wrongful Incarceration Compensation Act, 'rather than forcing an exoneree to waive their right to file a civil lawsuit.'
Koster emphasized that she believes in Florida's criminal justice system, but acknowledged the damage that can result when the state does get it wrong.
'We are still the only ones who can convict and, if we mess up, we need to make it right,' she said. She added that her bill isn't attempting to change the 2008 law but simply to make it easier for those who were wrongly incarcerated by the state to be compensated as intended.
Since passage of that law, only five exonerees have received compensation while 19 have been forced to give up the $50,000 for each year they were unfairly incarcerated, according to the Innocence Project.
Among those who missed out was Robert DuBoise, who served 37 years on rape and murder charges but was exonerated in 2020 by the Conviction Review Unit of the Hillsborough County State Attorney's Office after DNA evidence testing excluded him as the perpetrator.
However, the clean-hands provision of state law precluded him from being eligible for compensation because of two nonviolent property felony crimes which resulted in probation when he was a teenager. He ended up suing the city of Tampa in federal court in 2021 and, ultimately, the city council approved a $14 million settlement for him in 2024.
The Florida Senate passed a similar proposal unanimously during the 2023 session, but Koster's bill never made it to the House floor that year.
Tampa Democratic Rep. Dianne Hart praised the 2025 legislation that came before the House committee on Wednesday, and said she hopes it becomes law. 'I could not be happier to see this bill go all the way to the floor and to the governor's desk,' she told Koster.
'All I'm doing is opening a door that is barely cracked for these folks,' Koster said. 'And I'm just trying to open it a little wider. And since getting elected it has become my mission to get this across the finish line.'
Koster's measure has two more stops in the House before it has a chance to get before the entire chamber this year. Northeast Florida Republican Jennifer Bradley has filed a companion bill in the Senate (SB 130).
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