Non-DNA Exonerees Struggle to Obtain Compensation…

Here’s an article about Billy Frederick Allen of Texas, who had his conviction overturned in 2009 on non-DNA grounds after serving more than 25 years in prison for a murder conviction that most believe he did not commit.

Although the appeals court declared the evidence against Allen too weak for any reasonable juror to convict him, Texas officials say he has not proven his innocence. Therefore, they say, he isn’t covered by a state law that generously compensates the wrongfully convicted for the years they spent behind bars.

The Innocence Project of Texas says he’s just as innocent as any of their clients who have been proven innocent by DNA testing.  But because Billy doesn’t have that ironclad proof of DNA, he has been denied compensation under the state compensation statute so far by the Texas courts.  His case is now in the Texas Supreme Court.  From the article:

Now, the Texas Supreme Court is considering Allen’s compensation claim. Both sides recently argued before the court, with Allen’s attorneys saying he had proven himself innocent and was the same as any other ex-inmate who had been released from prison.

“Billy will establish that you don’t have to have a DNA exoneration to be compensated,” said his attorney, Kris Moore.

Assistant Solicitor General Philip Lionberger, representing the state, argued that Allen was freed through a claim that raised legitimate questions about his conviction but did not prove he was fully innocent. He said state law only requires payment to former inmates who win their freedom after presenting evidence proving their innocence based on a stricter standard than the one Allen met.

Lionberger said Allen’s claim and others like his are “never going to be entitled to compensation.”

Democratic state Sen. Rodney Ellis, who pushed for the state’s compensation law and other criminal justice reforms, said Allen’s case seemed caught in a “no person’s land” — the evidence was insufficient to convict him, yet it also appeared too weak to qualify him for compensation.

We have this same problem in Ohio.  Although the Ohio Innocence Project has now had 15 individuals released on grounds of innocence, only the inmates like Raymond Towler, Robert McClendon and Clarence Elkins–who have ironclad DNA innocence claims–have received compensation so far under the state statute.  Like most innocence projects, many of our clients are believed to be innocent but fall into “no person’s land” as Sen. Rodney Ellis laments above.