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Pennsylvania House of Representatives
https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/Legis/CSM/showMemoPublic.cfm?chamber=H&SPick=20150&cosponId=16867
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House of Representatives
Session of 2015 - 2016 Regular Session

MEMORANDUM

Posted: January 22, 2015 04:33 PM
From: Representative James R. Roebuck, Jr.
To: All House members
Subject: Compensate the Wrongfully Convicted
 
In the near future, I will be reintroducing legislation that would compensate people who have been wrongfully convicted of a crime with damages as shown below:

  1. A sum equal to twice the amount of the gross wages of the plaintiff earned in the year prior to his arrest or $25,000, whichever is greater, for each year of wrongful imprisonment;
  2. Reasonable attorney fees and court costs incurred by the plaintiff as a result of the wrongful conviction; and
  3. Restitution of all fines, surcharges and penalties incurred by the plaintiff as a result of the wrongful conviction.
According to the Innocence Project, there have been 265 post-conviction DNA exonerations in the United States; six of those occurring in Pennsylvania. Unvalidated or improper forensic science played a role in approximately 50 percent of those DNA exonerations. With technological advances, there is sure to be no shortage of innocent men and women languishing in prison who, if they are able to sustain the arduous process of proving their innocence, must then file costly, hard-to-win lawsuits to rebuild their lives.

Thank you in advance for your support.



Introduced as HB462