Claims Board Grants $97K To Estate Of Exonerated Man

The Wisconsin Claims Board has agreed to pay more than $97,000 to the estate of a man who served six years in prison for a rape he didn’t commit.

Forest Shomberg was wrongfully convicted of sexually assaulting a Madison student in 2002. In 2012, the claims board denied his claim for $100,000 in compensation and legal fees. Soon after that, Shomberg died of an apparent drug overdose; nevertheless, his estate refiled his claim.

The board awarded $20,000 as compensation for Shomberg’s time in prison, and another $77,000 to cover the legal fees his family paid to prove his innocence.

“It is an important acknowledgement of the wrong done to Mr. Shomberg,” said Nathan Otis, who represents Shomberg’s estate. “And the fact that he’s since passed, that doesn’t erase that wrong that the system did him.”

Otis says one aspect of the claims board decision does trouble him: Shomberg was eligible to receive $5,000 for each year of wrongful incarceration for a total of $30,000. But the board only gave him $20,000. In the ruling, the board says the reduction accounts for the fact that Shomberg was convicted of a firearms violation after his release.

Otis says that logic seems unfair.

“I don’t think the time that somebody spends wrongfully incarcerated should be affected by what they do afterwards,” said Otis. “That injury still remains and that’s the point of this compensation.”

There are two competing bills pending in the state Legislature that would increase the amount of compensation for people who are wrongfully convicted. Wisconsin offers one of the lowest compensation amounts in the country.