A new law in the state of Georgia will see those who have been wrongfully convicted eligible for compensation for their ordeal through a standardised legal process. The state becomes the 39th in the US to change the law to accommodate applications from victims of miscarriages of justice through a comprehensive new law.
The law will grant people who have been exonerated from prison after being found innocent of their crimes an automatic chance to receive compensation in line with pre-determined figures for each year they were imprisoned. The state, which continues to use the death penalty for certain crimes, will grant additional compensation if the victim of the miscarriage of justice was on death row. Previously exonerees had to apply to have their application heard on case-by-case basis through individual compensation resolutions that had to pass through the full legislative process like any other law. The Georgia Innocence Project, which represents those fighting against wrongful convictions said that many exonerees, including five individuals this year, have gone through the ‘arduous process’ and were still left empty-handed.
In a statement in response to the new legislation the Innocence Project said: ‘Wrongful conviction is one of the most devastating injustices imaginable for impacted individuals and their families, and the nightmare does not end at exoneration. Exonerees face major barriers after release, from trauma, to struggling to find housing or employment due to their years out of the job market. While no amount of money can return the years or decades lost to wrongful conviction, the new law will be instrumental in helping those impacted rebuild their lives.’
The ‘Wrongful Conviction and Incarceration Compensation Act’ will require claimants to prove their innocence to be eligible to receive compensation and excludes those who were accomplices to the crime or caused their conviction in order to shield the real offender. The law will apply to those who have had their conviction reversed or vacated, or have received a pardon for the conviction based on their innocence. Claims will then be adjudicated by administrative law judges who will decide if compensation is to be paid within 180 days of being appointed to the case.
Compensation will only be considered for those who were acquitted within the last three years, or three years from the law’s adoption this July, with a subsequent two-year window to file a claim after newly discovered evidence of their innocence becomes available. The heirs of people who died before proving their innocence will also be eligible for compensation.
Successful exonerees will receive $75,000 for every year they were wrongfully imprisoned, with an additional $25,000 for every year spent on death row. Between 1973 and 2021 seven people have been acquitted from death row in Georgia. An initial payment of $6,000-18,000 will be made to those who qualify while they wait for the State’s assembly to fund their entire compensation award.
One of the few conditions of this compensation is that recipients must then waive all right to bring legal action against the state or it’s agents, for example police officers or other state bodies that may have been implicated in their wrongful conviction.
The death penalty has been used in the state of Georgia 77 times since 1983, and was last used in March 2024. The state’s use of the death penalty, particularly against black men, came under global scrutiny in September 2011 when Troy Davis was killed by lethal injection for the murder of a police officer – a crime he maintained he was innocent of right up until his death.
In the UK the system for compensating victims of miscarriages of justice has been described as ‘cruel’ and ‘inhuman’ after a 2014 change to law required the wrongfully convicted to prove their innocence ‘beyond all reasonable doubt’. This Kafkaesque inversion of the right to be considered innocent until proven guilty has seen payments of compensation to victims almost entirely collapse. The scheme in its current form has a 93% rejection rate.
Prior to the introduction of the 2014 change in the law introduced by the then Lord Chancellor Chris Grayling, close to half of applicants received compensation (46%) but presently just 6.6% of cases are successful. Speaking in Westminster this March, Plaid Cymru MP Ben Lake said the current system ‘sends a message that the state does not accept responsibility when it causes harm—that is clearly wrong’.
In the UK, if an applicant jumps through the evidentiary hoops required to be considered eligible for compensation (now almost exclusively possible for those who are acquitted by new DNA samples as opposed to new or newly discovered circumstantial evidence), a minister in the justice department decides the amount of compensation to be granted. The only statutory prerequisite of this amount is that it must be less than £1m in total – a figure that was settled upon by the then labour government in 2008 and that hasn’t kept pace with inflation.
Under this system Peter Sullivan, who was acquitted of the rape and murder of Diane Sindall last month, will receive just £26,000 for each year he was imprisoned if he can overcome the high legal threshold.
Critics may now question how a US state that continues to use the death penalty for the worst crimes can enact a more comprehensive and more liberal compensation scheme for victims of miscarriages of justice than is available in the UK.
Kristin Verrill, Executive Director at the Georgia Innocence Project, described the state’s new act as bringing ‘consistency and long-overdue dignity’ to the process of applying for compensation.
