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Yahoo
03-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Georgia House OKs bill to overhaul wrongly convicted payout after splicing to Trump-inspired vehicle
Mario Stinchcomb was exonerated for a 2002 murder conviction. He recently appeared at a press conference to support a formula for the wrongfully incarcerated to get compensation for lost years. Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder The Georgia House passed a bill Wednesday that seeks to overhaul the compensation process allowing the state to pay wrongfully convicted Georgians, a system that has long relied on individual resolutions to pay people who were locked up and later exonerated. Republican lawmakers in the state House prevailed in a contentious 244-61 vote after legislators spliced it onto a bill aimed at allowing criminal defendants to recoup their legal costs if the prosecuting attorney in their case is disqualified for personal or professional misconduct. The original wrongful compensation bill, House Bill 533, stalled in the House on Crossover Day, March 7, passing out of the chamber's Judiciary Non-Civil Committee but never appearing on the floor for a vote. Previous versions of the bill have faced fierce opposition in the Senate, particularly by Sen. Randy Robertson, a Cataula Republican and former law enforcement officer who has repeatedly raised questions about the innocence of convicts who he says could be exonerated by the courts on a legal technicality. But attached to Senate Bill 244, which the bill's lead sponsor Sen. Brandon Beach said is inspired by President Donald Trump's election interference case in Georgia, it may face a smoother path to success. As one of only a few states without a designated statute in place to compensate wrongfully convicted citizens, Georgia's wrongfully incarcerated residents face an uphill battle when attempting to secure compensation. That's on top of the already complex, often yearslong process prisoners must undertake in order to get a conviction overturned. Once they've secured their freedom, those who have been wrongfully convicted must then find a state representative who is willing to sponsor an individual compensation resolution for them and file a claim with Georgia's Claims Advisory Board. For any claims over $5,000 — which encompasses most, if not all wrongful conviction cases — the advisory board will then make a recommendation to the legislature, which apportions compensation funds as part of the annual state budget. 'Certainly, this process is not meant for wrongful conviction,' said Maggie Hasty, who oversees claims for the Secretary of State's office. 'It is meant for people who have monetary claims against state agencies.' Following the Advisory Board's recommendations, those resolutions then go through the full legislative process and must pass committees and floor votes in both the House and Senate before they can take effect. Advocates have criticized the current system, arguing that it results in unequal treatment between exonerees and subjects individual compensation resolutions to legislators' political whims. But under the language in HB 533, sponsored by Rome Republican Rep. Katie Dempsey, the pathway would be streamlined. The bill would establish a new process under Georgia state law for people who have been exonerated, allowing administrative law judges — rather than the Claims Advisory Board — to rule on wrongful conviction compensation cases. It would also award a standardized rate of $75,000 for each year of incarceration to each exoneree, with an additional $25,000 added for each year spent on death row. For Dempsey, who sponsored two individual compensation resolutions for residents of Floyd County in addition to the Wrongful Conviction Compensation Act, 'a wrongful conviction is unimaginable.' 'I often put myself in those shoes — because it could happen to any of us, or our children, or someone we love or care about,' she said, adding, 'I wouldn't last ten minutes in prison and you all know that. I would need a lot more than money to make me whole.' For the five citizens hoping to seek compensation this year, however, time may already have run out. On Crossover Day, lawmakers combined five individual compensation resolutions into House Resolution 128, which passed overwhelmingly in the House but did not receive a hearing on the Senate side until Tuesday, after the deadline to add it to the Senate calendar had passed. The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Compensation, which Robertson chairs, began its hearing at 6 a.m. on Tuesday morning, ultimately concluding after more than four hours of testimony without a final vote. 'We rush too many things through this building without having legitimate, deep-dive conversations about it,' Robertson said, comparing the combined bill to a 'bastard son.' For House Democrats, who have overwhelmingly supported compensating those who are wrongfully convicted in previous bienniums, the marriage between the wrongful conviction act and a bill aimed at compensating President Donald Trump presented a philosophical dilemma. According to state Sen. Brandon Beach, an Alpharetta Republican and staunch Trump ally who was recently appointed by the president to serve as U.S. Treasurer, SB 244 was directly inspired by Trump's election interference case in Georgia, in which Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis was disqualified after an appeals court judge found that her romantic relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade created a ''significant' appearance of impropriety.' Under SB 244, attorney's fees and other costs would come out of county prosecutors' budgets, which Democrats fear could have a disproportionate impact on smaller counties with more limited budgets, and discourage prosecutors from tackling complex or high-profile cases. In a scathing Minority Report, state Rep. Shea Roberts, an Atlanta Democrat, condemned the combination of the two pieces of legislation. 'I wanted to believe that we were better than this,' she said. 'I held out hope that the majority party in this chamber would not use its legislative power for blatant political retribution. And tacking the Wrongfully Incarcerated Compensation bipartisan bill that our colleagues have worked tirelessly to pass for years onto this punitive SB 244 makes me physically sick.' The bill would also directly benefit a sitting legislator: Sen. Shawn Still, a Johns Creek Republican, was indicted in the Fulton County election interference case alongside Trump and 17 other codefendants. If the bill passes, he too may be able to recoup the cost of his legal fees. But state Rep. Scott Holcomb, an Atlanta Democrat who sponsored two previous versions of the Wrongful Conviction Compensation Act, urged his colleagues to vote in favor of the bill. The current compensation process 'has been candidly broken for a very, very long time,' he said. 'What it leads to is inconsistent results: some people get compensation, some people don't. Some people get a certain amount of compensation, some people get less, some people get more.' He also highlighted the repeated issues he's faced getting the Senate to consider any form of compensation for the wrongfully convicted. 'What's happened since 2022 is no resolutions have moved, period, in the senate,' he said. 'They haven't entertained them, they haven't considered them. Last year they didn't even have hearings for measures that were passed here.' Though the vast majority of Democrats voted against the bill, Holcomb and Dempsey are optimistic that combining the two bills will improve their chances of establishing change by the end of the 2025 legislative session. 'I don't like being sideways with the majority of my caucus,' Holcomb said after the bill passed on the House floor. 'But at the same token, when all is said and done, and when I leave this building for good, there's going to be very few things that I've worked on that will have been incredibly consequential. This will be one of them, and so I had to continue to support it, and I'll continue to support it, and I really hope that it gets to the finish line this year.' The legislation now returns to the Senate, which must agree to the amended House version before the bill can advance to the governor's desk. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
28-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Georgia lawmaker revives wrongful conviction compensation bill with penalties for disqualified DAs
Sen. Brandon Beach, recently appointed U.S. Treasurer by President Donald Trump, amended a bill by Rep. Katie Dempsey to allow for wrongful conviction compensation when district attorneys are subsequently disqualified. Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder A bill that would grant compensation to wrongfully convicted Georgians was just given a second chance after lawmakers spliced it into a bill inspired by President Donald Trump's election interference case in Georgia. Senate Bill 244, which is aimed at allowing criminal defendants to recoup their legal costs if the prosecuting attorney in their case is disqualified for personal or professional misconduct, now includes the bulk of House Bill 533, which would establish a standardized process in Georgia state law for people who have been exonerated. It passed out of the House Judiciary Non-Civil Committee in a contentious vote Thursday afternoon. House lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have faced an uphill battle in their efforts to properly compensate those who have been wrongfully incarcerated. The process is currently done on a case-by-case basis through individual compensation resolutions that must pass through the full legislative process like any other bill. Legislation to standardize the process was initially introduced by Atlanta Democratic Rep. Scott Holcomb in 2022, and re-introduced in 2023, but his efforts have repeatedly been stalled in the Senate by Republican opposition. This year, HB 533, also known as the Wrongful Conviction Compensation Act, was sponsored by Rome Republican Rep. Katie Dempsey. It passed through the House Judiciary Non-Civil Committee unanimously ahead of Crossover Day but never made it to a vote on the House floor. House lawmakers did, however, overwhelmingly pass a measure that included individual compensation resolutions for five people who served time in prison after being wrongfully convicted. In contrast, SB 244 was sponsored by state Sen. Brandon Beach, an Alpharetta Republican and staunch Trump ally who was recently appointed by the president to serve as U.S. Treasurer. It was originally aimed solely at allowing criminal defendants to recoup their legal costs in the event that the prosecuting attorney in their case was disqualified as a result of 'improper conduct.' The bill, Beach said, was inspired by Trump's election interference case in Georgia, in which Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis was disqualified after an appeals court judge found that her romantic relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade created a ''significant' appearance of impropriety.' 'When you think about somebody getting indicted, it's somewhat of a scarlet letter,' Beach said at a committee hearing on the bill Tuesday. 'It is tough. It can ruin your life, and it can definitely cost you a lot in attorney's fees to defend yourself. And so I just am doing this so that people that have been wrongly accused and then the case goes away, they have some type of ability to recoup some of their fees and reasonable cost.' Democratic lawmakers on the committee objected to Beach's portion of the bill, pointing out that the bill would benefit Sen. Shawn Still, a Johns Creek Republican who was indicted in the Fulton County election interference case alongside Trump and 17 other codefendants. 'My concern is that we are specifically aiding one of our colleagues, not to mention the issue that Rep. Dempsey and Rep. Holcomb's bill is essentially being used, essentially, as political extortion,' said Rep. Esther Panitch, a Sandy Springs Democrat. Democrats also raised concerns about the disproportionate impact the law would have on smaller counties with more limited budgets, as well as fears that local district attorneys could be discouraged from prosecuting complicated cases out of fear of having to cover the cost of defendant's attorney fees, but they ultimately failed to successfully amend the bill. Dempsey also made an effort to distance her language from Beach's proposal as she presented the substitute bill to the committee. 'This is truly quite separate from the measure that Senator Beach has on the front,' Dempsey said. 'This is a completely different conversation. We are not trying to target anyone. We are trying to take a process and make it fair and remove it from the hands of the Legislature and put it into administrative law judges' hands, who are much better skilled and equipped to handle those decisions.' Though Dempsey said she was grateful that the language regarding wrongful convictions has a second chance to pass through the Legislature this year, she admitted that it may be an uphill battle to get the bill through both chambers before the 2025 legislative session ends on April 4. But in its new form, she has reason to be optimistic, she said. 'This bill is a priority for Senator Beach,' Dempsey said, adding that he could be instrumental to the bill's passage. Deputy Editor Jill Nolin contributed to this report.
Yahoo
05-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Supporters hope third time's a charm for Georgia lawmakers to OK wrongful conviction compensation
Mario Stinchcomb was exonerated for a 2002 murder conviction. Ross WIlliams/Georgia Recorder How much money is a year of your life worth? That's the math lawmakers at the Georgia Capitol are grappling with this week as they seek to pass legislation that would change how the state compensates those it has wrongly incarcerated. House Bill 533 is now making its third trip through the Georgia Legislature, with sponsors on both sides of the aisle hoping for its smooth passage. Under current Georgia law, those who have been wrongfully convicted must find a state representative who is willing to sponsor an individual compensation resolution for them and file a claim with Georgia's Claims Advisory Board. Those resolutions then go through the full legislative process and must pass committees and floor votes in both the House and Senate before they can take effect. As of December 2024, Georgia is one of only 11 states that does not have a law in place to compensate the wrongfully convicted. But this year's legislation, sponsored by Rome Republican Rep. Katie Dempsey, aims to change that by establishing a standardized process under Georgia state law for people who have been exonerated. The bill would allow administrative law judges — rather than the Claims Advisory Board — to rule on wrongful conviction compensation cases and award a standardized rate of $75,000 for each year of incarceration to each exoneree, with an additional $25,000 added for each year spent on death row. By standardizing the process of seeking compensation, Georgia can avoid some of the inequities that come from having compensation awarded on a case-by-case basis through the Legislature. Advocates like Hayden Davis, a board member of the Georgia Innocence Project who helped draft the bill, are hopeful that HB 533 will make it through both chambers before lawmakers adjourn on April 4, arguing that Georgia's existing systems are not well-equipped to handle these types of cases. 'What we've seen in a lot of years is resolutions failing, not because of any weakness of the underlying claim, but because of political reasons,' Davis said, adding that the jam-packed 40-day legislative calendar can pose another obstacle. 'So the results of this existing ad hoc process is extremely inefficient, it's inconsistent and it's fundamentally unfair.' And for exonerees like Michael Woolfolk, who was wrongfully convicted of the 2002 murder of Jaketha Young in Atlanta alongside fellow exoneree Mario Stinchcomb, those inconsistencies can have dramatic consequences. Woolfolk, whose individual compensation resolution has been sponsored by Rep. Stacey Evans, an Atlanta Democrat, said he is seeking compensation for the third time after two previous compensation resolutions had stalled in the Senate. 'It's been frustrating,' he told reporters. 'I've been trying to figure out how to keep myself together, but it's kind of hard to start a career after 40. So I just try to take it step by step and just try to find jobs to keep me above average.' Though HB 533 is likely to clear the House, it may face an uphill battle in the Senate, where previous versions of the bill (as well as individual compensation resolutions) have been stalled by Republican opposition. Though the bill would only compensate wrongly incarcerated people who have established actual innocence, Sen. Randy Robertson, a Cataula Republican and former law enforcement officer, has repeatedly voiced concerns over whether people who are receiving compensation are truly innocent or instead freed on a legal technicality. 'My concerns about the bill is how we define 'exonerated,'' he said. 'To me, exonerated is, you bring real evidence showing that an individual did not commit the crime. Exonerated does not mean a technical failure by the juror or a misstatement by a prosecutor while charging the juror, or some other technical failure within the court.' This year, he also introduced a competing version of the bill, SB 176, which restricts the eligibility requirements for exonerees even further, and offers only $50,000 per year of wrongful incarceration. The bill has not yet cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee. However, according to HB 533 cosponsor Rep. Scott Holcomb, an Atlanta Democrat, the bill has also been updated since its initial introduction in 2022 to incorporate feedback he's received on the bill over past legislative sessions. A former prosecutor, Holcomb said he is optimistic about the bill's prospects this year, despite the competing Senate counterpart. 'I am encouraged that [the Senate] had a bill that was filed,' he said. 'That shows that they're looking at the issue, and it's something that we've certainly studied very hard. I think the proposal that we've put forth this year has incorporated a number of good ideas that people brought forward and, I think, improve upon prior versions of the bill.' And while advocates acknowledge that there is no way to fully undo a wrongful conviction, they hope that future exonerees in Georgia will have a smoother path to justice. 'No amount of money can return those years lost,' Davis said. 'But what we can do is provide some resources to help folks rebuild the lives that they've been unjustly deprived of for so long, and that's what this bill would do. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
