Allan Turner writes, "From life in prison to life of comfort?" for the Houston Chronicle.
And:Once facing the prospect of spending his life in prison, 39-year-old Allen Wayne Porter now faces the possibility of spending his remaining years as a wealthy man thanks to a state program that reimburses inmates for time wrongfully spent in prison.
Porter's lawyer, Casey Garrett, said Monday that her client, a convicted sexual assailant who last week won the first round of his "actual innocence" case in a Houston courtroom, hasn't given any thought to the money he could receive for the 19 years he spent behind bars.
"It's not an issue until everything is final," she said. "He's waiting for the ruling to be official."
If Porter elects to pursue reparations from the state, he could be eligible for payments through the Tim Cole Act passed by the Legislature in 2007.
The reparations program, named for a Texas Tech student who died while wrongfully imprisoned for sexual assault, is administered by the state comptroller's office.
Comptroller's spokesman R.J. DeSilva said Porter will have to provide a court order verifying his innocence and prison documents confirming time served. After a successful agency review, he should be eligible to receive payments.
Sixty-two wrongfully convicted former prisoners now receive payments in the program, DeSilva said.
Related posts are in the exoneration index.
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