Activists, Legislative Backers Say They’ll Keep Fighting To Boost Wrongful Conviction Payouts

The co-director of the Wisconsin Innocence Project says he’s disappointed the state Legislature has killed a bipartisan bill that would boost compensation for people who have spent time in prison for crimes they didn’t commit.

The bill passed the state Assembly unanimously but critics in the Senate oppose a provision that would extend payments to people who served time for for other crimes before their wrongful convictions.

Keith Findley of the Innocence Project said that’s not a good reason to kill the bill.

“The whole point of this is to compensate people for spending time in prison for crimes they did not commit and that’s all this will do,” he said. “The fact that someone may have a prior conviction is sometimes the reason the government goes after them to wrongly convict them in the first place.”

Republican senators who originally backed the bill now say the state can’t afford the roughly $4 million it would cost to compensate the 13 people eligible for increased payouts.

For 52-year-old Mario Vasquez of Green Bay, bill’s death means he’ll have to wait even longer to be compensated for the 17 years he spent in prison after being wrongfully convicted of sexually molesting a 4-year-old girl .

“I am completely disappointed because all these years I waited and waited and waited. Tomorrow, next week, next month, and now they tell me I’m not gonna get nothing. Very disappointing,” he said.

Vasquez was freed last February after the Innocence Project uncovered evidence that it was the girl’s father and uncle who had abused her. After a judge heard the evidence, Brown County prosecutors dismissed the charges against him.

Findley said he’s hopeful the bill will come up again next year. Until then, he said, Wisconsin will remain “dead last” in the nation for the amount of compensation it offers the wrongfully convicted.

“It’s unfortunate that objections that came up at the last minute have been allowed to trump such a necessary reform,” he said.

Current law allows exonerees to petition the state for $5,000 per year of wrongful imprisonment, capped at $25,000. The proposed change would increase that to $50,000 a year, capped at $1 million. That’s the same amount the federal government provides to people wrongfully convicted of federal crimes.

The Assembly author of the bill, Republican state Rep. Dale Kooyenga, said he’s gotten to know some of the men eligible for increased compensation and that they feel the Legislature pulled the rug out from under on them.

“This is really an injustice when you hear these guys’ stories” said Kooyenga. “They were looking for a break. They were looking for the opportunity to either buy a house or help out with college … They were thrown under the bus.”

He’s promising to revive the bill next year: “I will put the boxing gloves on and I will fight for these guys like no one’s ever fought for them before in the Legislature.”

Kooyenga said it may be necessary to change language in the bill that allows exonerees with past criminal records to be compensated. But he said even in its current form, the bill deosn’t make anyone automatically eligible for the increased compensation. The bill puts the final decision for paying out funds in the hands of the state claims board.

“The board can decide to give them the maximum or zero,” he said, adding that he’ll urge lawmakers to leave the bill as it is instead of changing the state statute.