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Missouri Will Pay Inmates Cleared By DNA
June 30, 2006
KSDK-TV (MO)
By Cordell Whitlock
A St. Louis man wrongly convicted of rape will receive money from the state of Missouri. Steven Toney spent nearly 14 years in prison until DNA cleared his name.
The state agreed to pay anyone exonerated of crimes by DNA after august of 2003. Three men, including Steven Toney, were exonerated before that date.
In 1983, Steven Toney was sentenced to two consecutive life terms for forcible rape and sodomy. He talked with NewsChannel 5 in March.
"You can't imagine lying there, day in and day out for 14 years, for something you didn't do, constantly wondering, will somebody hear me?"
In 1996, Toney walked out of the Moberly Correctional Facility after DNA proved his innocence. The warden gave Toney $16 and good wishes.
State Senator Michael Gibbons spent three years trying to get Missouri to pay Toney and two other men who received nothing for their wrongful imprisonment. Friday morning Governor Blunt will sign Senate Bill 1023, approving over $200,000 in payments to Toney.
"Does it take away the fact he lost all those years of his life? We can't give him those years back but it at least acknowledges we made a mistake and we want to make it right," Gibbons said.
Toney told us in March the money will at least give him a chance at happiness. "I can have my own place, my own car, and maybe a job. I want to do something productive." |
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