In September 2012 Ohio lawmakers required a faster track to compensation payment for the wrongfully convicted. The new provision is that “within sixty days after the date of the entry of the determination by the court of common pleas…that a person is a wrongfully imprisoned individual, the clerk of the court of claims shall forward a preliminary judgment to the president of the controlling board requesting the payment of fifty per cent of the amount” of the compensation as authorized by state law. The board is then required to take all actions necessary to make the payment. The new provision will be put to the test this month.
As reported by the Columbus Dispatch (here), Darrell Houston, who spent 16 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit, is likely to be the first to receive the expedited partial payment, in his case, nearly $380,000. This will be good news for Houston, who has worked at a car wash to meet expenses.
Nevertheless, as is usually the case in wrongful convictions, Houston’s road to exoneration and compensation has been long.
He was convicted in 1992 of a murder of a convenience school clerk, but an investigation in 2003 by ABC News Channel 5 in Cleveland revealed evidence of his innocence including the fact that a witness to the crime said Houston was not the killer. No physical evidence tied Houston to the murder.
According to the case’s report at the National Registry of Exonerations (here) Common Pleas Judge Nancy Fuerst granted Houston a new trial in November 2007. The judge indicated that there was little evidence supporting his conviction. The Cuyahoga County District Attorney appealed the ruling, which was reaffirmed in January of 2009. The new trial began in August of 2010, but prosecutors then dismissed the charges.
A Cuyahoga County Common Pleas judge subsequently ruled that Houston had been wrongfully convicted. Prosecutors also appealed this ruling. Houston’s attorney noted before the Eighth District Court of Appeals (here) that Houston had turned down prosecutors’ offers to free him on time served if he would plead to lesser charges.
According to the News Channel Report (here), in September 2012 the Appeals Court upheld the lower court’s ruling, “and found that Houston was not only ‘wrongfully convicted’ but that ‘a preponderance of the evidence showed Houston was innocent.’
The Ohio Court of Claims order to pay Houston will be before the Controlling Board on Jan. 28. In Ohio, the wrongfully convicted are eligible for a base rate of $40,330 per year of wrongful imprisonment, adjusted for inflation by the auditor of state, as well as reimbursement for any fines, court costs, reasonable legal fees, and loss of salary due to the arrest, prosecution, conviction, and wrongful imprisonment.
Ohio’s faster-track compensation for the wrongfully convicted is to be lauded. Nevertheless, assuming Houston receives partial compensation as expected at the end of this month, his journey from arrest and wrongful imprisonment to partial compensation will have taken more than twenty years.
Wrongful Convictions Blog 
DNA should be REQUIRED to be collected upon arrest like FINGERPRINTING is required to be done so that INNOCENT people dont loose a big chunk of their live’s to inner prison wall’s like this man did. Unfortunately… there are many other’s like him ‘innocent that are spending year’s of their live’s in prison. If I were this man and given a ‘choice between prison and my family, freedom…jOR the money… I would choose my family and freedom…the could KEEP their Money!! However WHATEVER I chose if I were ‘innocent of the crime I was ‘convicted of….I would Also… have to walk away with my dignity and innocence as well!! In other word’s they would have to wipe the slate clean!! Maybe the court’s shouldn’t ONLY be required to pay for his time in prison BUT should ALSO be required to run a story in the local newspaper …sort of like a retraction story to give exoneree’s their dignity back and make them employable once again!! Although wrogfully convicted SOME dont spend so many year’s in prison and dont get the kind of fund’s this Gentleman is expecting to settle out with, with the State of Ohio.
I so agree with you, Cindy. This is the main reason I oppose the death penalty. As we have a system that places people in jail who are innocent, it is bad enough the Wrongful Convictions Clinic had to start because of the pure necessity. If you are lucky enough to be rescued by these fine individuals, at least it did get reversed! The death penalty, well, it’s very permanent. A system with this many mistakes doesn’t have the right to take someone’s life. I also do not believe it prevents crime.
Mr Houston should also be compensated for the stressful environment he was forced to live in, as well as the stress of being put in jail when innocent. We know what stress does to health, our brain, heart, blood pressure and mental stability are all altered due to stress. Dear Wrongful Convictions, have you been pushing for this type of compensation?