Missouri could be required to pay damages to people wrongfully imprisoned under a bill that had its first hearing Wednesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Senate Bill 36 would allow exonerated defendants to claim damages of $179 per day of wrongful imprisonment. The amount would be capped at $65,000 per fiscal year.
Supporters say passing the bill is necessary because there is currently almost no support available for exonerees after they're freed, despite the major difficulties of obtaining housing, affording health care or finding a job after prison.
Tricia Rojo Bushnell, executive director of the Midwest Innocence Project, was among those who testified in support of the bill.
"I have had the misfortune of walking someone out of prison and directly into a homeless shelter," Rojo Bushnell said. "Because the wrongfully convicted get out of prison with no money, no job experience, no credit, no access to housing, transportation, health insurance, many life necessities that we all take for granted, everyday living becomes an obstacle itself."
The issue of wrongful convictions has been brought to the forefront in Missouri in recent years with multiple high-profile exonerations, including the 2023 release of Lamar Johnson, who spent 28 years in prison for a murder he didn't commit.
In 2021, Kevin Strickland was exonerated after being wrongly convicted of a triple murder in 1979. Strickland, who testified in support of the bill, served 43 years of a life sentence before his exoneration and release.
"It's impossible to describe what it's like to lose your life," Strickland said. "I just ask you to go in your closet and lock yourself in for one day, and somebody feeds you through a hole and tells you when you can do this or do that, to begin with, and not be able to turn your hot water on for your shower in the wintertime, and things like that, and then we'll get to whether or not someone should be compensated."
Currently, those who are found guilty but are later exonerated through DNA evidence are eligible for damages of $100 per day of wrongful imprisonment. However, that does not apply to defendants who are exonerated via other means, such as Strickland, in whose trial the sole eyewitness later recanted her testimony and said she had been pressured by police.
Similar legislation was passed in 2023 as part of an omnibus crime bill, but the package was vetoed by former Gov. Mike Parson despite many of its provisions having bipartisan support.
Parson, who left office last week, cited the provisions in SB 36 as one of the reasons for the veto, saying in a statement at the time that he did not “believe every taxpayer across the state should be responsible for prosecutorial errors made at the local level.”
