Financial compensation bill passes House committee

A senate bill that would provide financial compensation to those who have been wrongfully convicted of a crime passed a House committee unanimously on Thursday.

Sen. Greg Bell, R-Fruit Heights, sponsor of SB16, said the bill would provide money to help those wrongfully convicted of a crime get back on their feet and rebuild their lives.

"These are devastating cases," Bell told members of the House Judiciary Standing Committee. So far, Utah has not experienced a case where someone has been wrongfully imprisoned by established factual evidence but there have been some 200 identified cases across the nation, Bell said.

Last June a former Rhode Island police officer testified before a Legislature interim committee about spending more than six years in prison for a murder he did not commit.

Scott Hornoff told lawmakers that even when the true killer came forward, neither the state nor the courts gave him any aid or recognition of his innocence. Hornoff said his career as an officer was destroyed and he was left with a large amount of debt from defending himself in court.

About 21 states, and the federal government, have laws affording exonerees financial compensation.

A federal law affords $50,000 a year for each year spent in federal prison, plus an additional $50,000 a year for those who serve time on death row. Utah's equivalent law would grant exonerees Utah's average income, currently $35,000, for each year of imprisonment up to 15 years. The money would be paid out over the number of years rather than a lump sum.

The money to fun the law would come from the state's crime victim's reparations fund and would have to be approved by the Utah Legislature for each case. Bell said the law is only for those cases where a court has factually established the innocence of a person and not for those who "get off" on a technicality.

The bill has the support of the Utah Attorney General's office. "When you have one (wrongful conviction), it's one too many," said Assistant Utah Attorney General Creighton Horton.

Bell said the bill has broad support in both the house and senate and believes there is a good chance the bill will pass. The bill now goes to the House floor for debate.

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