"Former death row inmate Paul House seeking payout from state," is the AP report by Rose French, via the Knoxville News in Tennessee.
Former Tennessee death row inmate Paul House served more than two decades in prison before his murder conviction was dismissed over DNA tests that raised doubts about his guilt.
Now House, 48, who lives with his mother and uses a wheelchair after developing multiple sclerosis in prison, may not get any money from the state that incarcerated him.
He wouldn't be alone. There are 23 states that don't have laws allowing compensation for those wrongly convicted of crimes and released from prison. In Tennessee, House could get up to $1 million under state law, but he must be exonerated by the governor first.
House is among 138 people on death row in the U.S. who had their convictions and sentences thrown out since 1973, according to the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, which opposes capital punishment. In 17 of those cases, DNA testing played a substantial role in establishing reasonable doubt.
Death penalty opponents say those who are compensated often don't receive enough money and social services supporting them in post-prison life fall short. Exonerees also can wait years to receive money and may lack income to tide them over.
"I'd be happy with a million, but it's not even close to what they should pay me," House told The Associated Press in a recent interview at his mother's home in Crossville.
House has always maintained he didn't kill Carolyn Muncey, whose raped and beaten body was found near her rural Union County home in 1985. On parole for a Utah rape and new to the area, he was arrested just days later, convicted the next year of the murder and sentenced to death.
However, the U.S. Supreme Court concluded in 2006 that jurors would have had reasonable doubt about House's guilt if they had seen what DNA tests revealed in the late 1990s - namely that semen found on Muncey's clothing didn't match House's. In 2008, a federal judge ordered House get a new trial or be set free.
Not viewed as a flight risk, House was released into his mother's care that same year while prosecutors in Union County prepared to retry him. They later withdrew charges, however, and dropped retrial plans after more testing revealed House's DNA was not on other key evidence.
House's attorney, Michael Pemberton, said the state parole board is expected to recommend to Gov. Phil Bredesen whether House should be exonerated. To get compensation in Tennessee, House must first be exonerated by the governor, and he can't appeal the decision if denied exoneration, Pemberton said.
A hearing date before the parole board has not yet been set.
And:
Compensation amounts can vary greatly in states that do award the wrongly convicted, according to a 2009 report by the Innocence Project, a New York legal center specializing in wrongful convictions.
California has a maximum of $100 per day, or $36,500 per year, of wrongful incarceration. Florida provides $50,000 annually with a maximum of $2 million, the group reports.
Mississippi allows $50,000 for each year of wrongful incarceration with a maximum of $500,000. Oklahoma provides $175,000 for the entirety of the wrongful conviction. In New York, whose Court of Claims decides the amount, there is no maximum amount.
The report also notes that the wrongly convicted can wait years to get paid and often lack means to support themselves, health insurance, transportation and a stable home.
Earlier coverage of his case begins here. Texas has been a leader in compensation for the wrongfully convicted. Texas now pays $80,000 per year of wrongful incarceration. In addition to a lump sum payment or annuitized payments, other medical and educational benefits may also be available to those exonerated in Texas.
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