Exonerated prisoner closer to compensation

By Jeremy Redmon, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, March 19, 2007

Georgia’s House of Representatives has approved $1.2 million in compensation for Robert Clark, who was exonerated by DNA evidence after spending more than 23 years in Georgia prisons for a rape he did not commit.

The money — to be paid to Clark over the next 15 years— is meant to compensate him for the time he spent in prison, his lost wages and emotional distress.

Clark, 46, who spent time in the state’s toughest prison in Reidsville, has said he suffers from paranoid schizophrenia as a result of his incarceration. He also contracted Hepatitis C while getting a tattoo in prison, according to the Georgia Innocence Project.

Clark watched the vote in the House of Representatives chamber from the balcony. “I feel great,” he told reporters as he left Capitol after the vote. “I’m adjusting. It’s slow, but I’m adjusting.”

Clark told reporters he intends to buy a house now. He also plans to continue working in construction despite the state compensation, so he can save for his retirement, said Lisa George, communications director of the Georgia Innocence Project, which is helping Clark adjust to life after prison.

“It’s a struggle every day,” George said about Clark’s efforts to get on with his life after prison. “The guy was 21 years old and an eighth-grade drop out when he went into prison. Obviously, he didn’t get the skills he needed in prison to walk back out on the street in 2005 and function the way both personally and professionally a middle-aged man would.”

Clark’s case stems from the brutal robbery and rape of a 29-year-old woman outside in 1981. She was abducted outside an East Atlanta fast food restaurant and then taken to Cobb County where she was raped repeatedly.

Clark was found guilty — after being identified by the victim — during a 1982 trial and sentenced to two life sentences plus 20 years in prison for rape, kidnapping and armed robbery.

Clark, who maintained his innocence from the day he was arrested, filed a petition for DNA testing under Georgia’s post-conviction testing law. The test concluded his DNA did not match the sperm from the victim’s rape kit.

Nationwide, 197 people have been exonerated by DNA to date, according to the Georgia Innocence Project. Six of them are from Georgia. Clark would be the third to be compensated by the state.

The House gave Clark a standing ovation before voting 132-25 for the resolution, which was sponsored by Rep. Larry O’Neal (R-Bonaire). The resolution now goes to the Senate for consideration.

“I am most amazed by Mr. Clark’s demeanor and attitude,” O’Neal said. “He is not angry. He is not bitter. And he is not vindictive. He is just grateful to be alive, free, working and back with his family.”

Immediately after the House voted for his compensation, Clark said: “This is so great. I just wish my mother were here to see it,” according to George, who was sitting next to him in the balcony.

Clark’s mother, George said, passed away at age 88 in 2004 while Clark was still in prison seeking his exoneration.