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Payments proposed for false jail time
TALLAHASSEE, Fla., April 11 (UPI) -- Florida lawmakers are considering a bill that would pay up to $500,000 to those wrongly imprisoned of a crime.
The bill would provide $50,000 for each year the person spent in jail, up to $500,000, the Palm Beach Post reported Wednesday.
For amounts greater than $500,000, the wrongfully convicted would have to seek compensation through the current claims bill process.
Gov. Charlie Crist supports the measure, saying "it's absolutely the right thing to do."
The newspaper said Wilton Dedge, who received $2 million from the state in 2005 after spending 22 years in prison for a rape he did not commit, wrote a letter to Crist asking him to help others like him.
"I can't imagine the despair and the difficulty that someone would go through who is wrongfully accused, has to serve time in jail, and then gets out and doesn't have that society try to repay them in a responsible way," Crist told the newspaper.
Copyright 2007 by United Press International
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