Florida bill could bring compensation to more wrongfully imprisoned individuals
Florida could be poised to erase a key provision in state law which has kept dozens of people wrongfully imprisoned from receiving compensation for years spent behind bars.
A Senate panel Wednesday unanimously approved a measure (SB 130) that would eliminate a so-called 'clean hands' standard in the state's wrongful incarceration law, on the books since 2008.
As a staff analysis explains, "When the (law) was passed, a person was ineligible to receive compensation ... if he or she was previously convicted of any other felony."
The clean hands requirement has contributed to only five released inmates being compensated by the state – out of 91 exonerated since 1989, according to the National Registry of Exonerations.
Those five have been awarded almost $6.3 million by the state, under the compensation program, according to the Florida Attorney General's office.
'This bill is not about having a strong bill against criminals who commit bad acts in our state,' said Sen. Jennifer Bradley, R-Fleming Island.
Instead, she told the Criminal and Civil Justice budget committee that the legislation is intended to help those wronged by the state.
'This bill rights that wrong against them and gets them the compensation that's deserved when the state gets it wrong,' she added.
Bradley has sponsored similar measures the past couple of years that failed to clear the Legislature. But early signs in the House and Senate suggest there may be more momentum this spring.
Florida became one of the first states in the nation to create a system where anyone wrongfully imprisoned could receive compensation. But Florida also is the only state to have the clean hands standard.
Bradley said that since 2018, there have been 18 exonerees that have been denied compensation, 'totaling 300 years of lost liberty.'
Under the law, those later found innocent by the court which convicted them are eligible to receive $50,000 for each year they served in prison. Compensation is capped at $2 million.
The clean hands provision initially barred anyone convicted of a felony from qualifying – keeping some with relatively minor convictions dating to their teen years from receiving compensation for decades later wrongfully spent behind bars.
The clean hands requirement was changed in 2017 to make a former inmate ineligible for receiving payments for being locked up if they were previously convicted of a violent felony or more than one non-violent felony.
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But the standard remains an obstacle, advocates say.
The Innocence Project, which pushed for Florida's compensation law almost two decades ago, supports Bradley's bill, along with other justice-related organizations. Similar legislation by Rep. Traci Koster, a Tampa Republican, is advancing in House committees.
In addition to erasing the clean hands requirement, the bill would extend the claims-filing deadline for those exonerated from 90 days to two years.
It would also let individuals to seek 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.
John Kennedy is a reporter in the USA TODAY Network's Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at jkennedy2@gannett.com, or on X at @JKennedyReport.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: New measure offers hope for exonerees seeking compensation in Florida
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