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Senate Endorses Compensation for Exonerated Prisoners
January 22, 2008
Salt Lake Tribune
By The Associated Press
The Utah Senate wants to pay people who can prove they were wrongfully convicted of a crime.
The bill would give an annual salary for every year spent behind bars. The legislation cleared the Senate on a 27-0 vote Tuesday.
The amount of money would be the tied to the average Utah salary, which is now about $35,000 a year.
Senate Bill 16, sponsored by Sen. Greg Bell, R-Fruit Heights, would not apply to illegal immigrants.
Bell said the bill is intended to keep the state from being sued after a wrongful conviction.
"This would be basically a workers compensation-type system rather than a hit-the-lottery system," he said.
Bell said he's unaware of any exonerated criminals who would already qualify. He believes it would be used on rare occasions.
The Senate will give the bill one more vote before it heads to the House.
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