People who’ve been wrongfully convicted and sent to prison in Indiana could be eligible for state payments of $50,000 per year they spent behind bars.
Legislators voted last week to send the bill to Gov. Eric Holcomb for final consideration. It would allow someone found “actually innocent” of a crime to seek the payments.
Those seeking the payments would have to agree to not file lawsuits over their imprisonment.
Such cases gained attention when Keith Cooper of Chicagospent nearly a decade in prison before being exonerated of an Elkhart armed robbery and pardoned by Holcomb in 2017. Cooper has a federal lawsuit pending against the northern Indiana city.
A state report estimates 25 ex-inmates could be eligible for nearly $14 million in total compensation.
