What are lost years worth?
Legislators lobby for inmates freed by DNA

By Carlos Campos, The Atlanta Journal Constitution, February 18, 2005

Georgia lawmakers will soon struggle with a complex question destined to come up with increasing frequency: How much is a wrongfully convicted person's time in prison worth?

The question is not philosophical. It's a matter of assigning dollars and cents to years wasted in prison and the terrible toll it exacts on an inmate's body, mind and soul. There's also the seemingly incalculable cost to families, careers, relationships, hopes and dreams wrecked by lengthy prison sentences.

Clarence Harrison (top left), Samuel Scott (top right) and Douglas Echols seek compensation.
Photos courtesy of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Three former Georgia prison inmates exonerated by DNA evidence of rape convictions are trying to put a price tag on that time. Clarence Harrison, cleared in 2004 after spending more than 17 years in prison, is seeking $1.7 million from the state. Samuel Scott, who spent nearly 16 years in prison, is asking for $1.2 million. Douglas Echols, who served 15 years, is seeking $1.6 million.

Harrison, convicted for a 1986 rape in Decatur, was the first inmate cleared in the state with the help of the Georgia Innocence Project.

"Those years taken away from us are those years where we would've established our future," said Harrison, 45. "I feel that the state should compensate us in order to help each one of us to start our lives over . . . so that we can be productive citizens out here."

The fate of their requests lies with the General Assembly. Reps. Tom Bordeaux (D-Savannah) and Stephanie Stuckey Benfield (D-Atlanta) are seeking compensation for the men, their constituents. If the men accept the payments, they are prohibited from making any further claims against the state.

While Benfield is lobbying on Harrison's behalf, she plans to introduce legislation that attempts to set a fixed compensation for the wrongfully incarcerated.

"The idea is having some conformity to it," Benfield said. "It's more politically palatable if we treat each person the same. We're going to see more of these cases with the existence of DNA and the proliferation of DNA."

Benfield, working with the Georgia Innocence Project, is studying similar legislation passed in other states and on the federal level.

The Georgia Innocence Project, begun in 2003, has received 1,850 requests from Georgia inmates to investigate their cases. The project is reviewing 300 cases and is seeking DNA testing for seven clients, executive director Aimee Maxwell said.

Compensation varies

Last year, President Bush signed the Innocence Protection Act into law. It increased the amount of compensation in federal cases for the wrongfully convicted from a flat $5,000 to $50,000 per year in non-capital cases and $100,000 per year in death penalty cases.

Eighteen states had enacted similar legislation as of mid-2004, according to the New York-based Innocence Project. Compensatory awards in those states vary: Alabama offers a minimum of $50,000 per year, while New Jersey offers only $20,000 per year. Some states have capped the total amount former inmates can receive. Tennessee re-wrote its laws last year to allow maximum compensation of $1 million.

Benfield has not decided on specific compensation for her bill, which she will likely introduce soon. But Benfield said she likes the idea of paying people on a scale, granting larger sums to those who spend more time in prison. She also wants to provide former inmates mental health counseling and career or vocational training.

Republican Majority Leader Jerry Keen (R-St. Simons Island) said this week that wrongfully convicted people should "absolutely" be compensated by the state. But he questioned whether a fixed payment is the best approach.

"I would say we need to look at each case on a case-by-case basis," Keen said.

Keen said there could be factors mitigating compensation, such as whether the person was cleared of all charges, or has prior felony convictions. "When someone has obviously been wronged by the system, then we ought to be take a look at those," he said.

How to create formula

Former Clayton County District Attorney Bob Keller, who dismissed a case against Calvin Johnson — the first man exonerated in Georgia by DNA evidence — agrees that wrongfully imprisoned people should be compensated. Johnson had asked for $1.6 million, but received $500,000 from the state.

But Keller also isn't sure a formula should be applied to every case.

"How do you put a price on freedom?" said Keller, now executive counsel for the Prosecuting Attorneys Council of Georgia. "How it affects different people is a variable factor."

In devising such laws, advocates for released inmates say many factors should be considered, including lost wages and diminished work skills, families broken by separation, divorce or death, inability to contribute to a pension fund or pay off a mortgage while incarcerated and lost opportunities to advance an education or a career.

Echols and Scott, both convicted for the rape of a Savannah woman in 1986, talked recently about how the prison sentences ruined their lives. Both appeared before the state Claims Advisory Board— which recommends to lawmakers how much or whether the state should pay for its negligent acts.

Echols, now 44, was a staff sergeant with ten years in the U.S. Army. Imprisonment ended his marriage. The Army gave Echols a dishonorable discharge upon conviction. At 5 foot 3, Echols became an easy target for violent assaults in prison; he was once stabbed with a screwdriver.

Scott, now 49, worked as a longshoreman on the Savannah docks when he was arrested. Today, he would be earning more than $100,000 in that job, said his lawyer, Richard H. Middleton Jr.

Secretary of State Cathy Cox, who chairs the Claims Advisory Board, called the men's testimony "incredibly compelling."

She said the board agreed that the three men should get something from the state, but left the amount to be determined by legislators. The board passed a resolution urging the General Assembly to "provide guidance and eligibility" through the law on compensation for exonerated prisoners.

Middleton argues that the federal legislation setting compensation at $50,000 a year is only a starting point to calculate such costs.

"If you don't consider other extenuating factors, you reduce human beings to car parts," Middleton said. "And I don't think you can do that with human beings."