How much should Oklahomans wrongfully incarcerated be paid? Lawmaker working to raise the amount

A leading Democrat hopes a recent string of wrongfully incarcerated Oklahomans being released from prison will be the catalyst for lawmakers to increase state compensation for people jailed for felony crimes they didn’t commit.

House Minority Leader Cyndi Munson, D-Oklahoma City, is working to build bipartisan support for legislation to increase the compensation for wrongfully incarcerated Oklahomans. It is capped at $175,000 regardless of the number of years someone spent imprisoned.

Although Munson has been working on this issue for years, she thinks a series of high-profile overturned convictions last year could drive home the need for change.

“We are putting people in prison who shouldn’t be there, and we should correct that,” she said. “That, to me, is an important part of criminal justice reform. It’s saying we admit when we’re wrong, and we try to fix it and take care of the people that we harmed by keeping them from their families and their communities.”

Glynn Simmons made national headlines after an Oklahoma County district court judge vacated his murder conviction and declared him innocent. Simmons, who spent more than 48 years in prison, is considered to have served the longest wrongful conviction sentence in the nation.

More: After 48 years of imprisonment, Glynn Simmons formally exonerated in Oklahoma

The $175,000 Simmons could be entitled to under state law would break down to about $3,646 for every year he was imprisoned.

A Pontotoc County judge in October vacated the conviction of Perry Lott after post-conviction DNA testing showed he did not commit the rape for which he served 30 years behind bars. Lott had been working with attorneys to get his case permanently dismissed since he was released from prison in 2018.

In June, a Sequoyah County judge vacated Ricky Dority’s murder conviction after he spent more than 20 years in prison for a 1997 murder he maintained he did not commit.

Proposed payments would be based on time served

Munson filed legislation last year that would compensate exonerated Oklahomans $50,000 a year for every year they served in prison. Death row inmates would be entitled to an additional $50,000 per year. Munson proposed the state pay out the money in monthly annuity payments.

Her bill that will carry over to the 2024 legislative session also proposes offering exonerated Oklahomans state health benefits and a tuition waiver at any Oklahoma college or university.

Munson already has found some bipartisan support for the idea of increasing wrongful incarceration pay. Rep. Chris Kannady, R-Oklahoma City, who chairs the House Civil Judiciary Committee, proposed raising the flat payments to $300,000 per person in a bill that cleared the House last year.

The federal government and about three dozen states have laws that entitle exonerees to some compensation for their convictions, but payments vary and the process to claim relief can be lengthy and arduous. Many states offer at least $50,000 per year of wrongful incarceration.

Kansas offers exonerees $65,000 for each year they spent behind bars. Colorado pays out $70,000 per year. And Texas, which has some of the most generous wrongful imprisonment payments in the nation, offers exonerees $80,000 per year imprisoned.

More than 3,400 people, including at least 43 from Oklahoma, have been exonerated since 1989, according to the National Registry of Exonerations.

Since Oklahoma lawmakers in 2003 created the payments for felony exonerees, the state has paid about a dozen claims.

Oklahoma Innocence Project Legal Director Andrea Miller told a legislative panel in 2022 the amount of compensation is not intended to serve as a punishment for the state, but it gives exonerees a chance to find a place to live and reintegrate back into society.

She advised lawmakers to scrap the flat payments in favor of a compensation structure based on the number of years a person was wrongfully imprisoned.

“It just doesn’t make a whole lot of sense,” Miller said. “Somebody who spent six months wrongfully convicted and is exonerated would recover the same thing as somebody who spends 30 years in prison.”

Do current wrongful incarceration payments fall short?

Dority was released June 15 from Joseph Harp Correctional Center after spending 24 years in prison on a first-degree murder conviction that was vacated over the summer.

During the COVID pandemic, Dority used his federal stimulus check to hire a private investigator who, along with the Oklahoma Innocence Project, helped clear his name.

After his release, Dority moved in with family near Fort Smith, Arkansas, and began the process of seeking to be found “factually innocent,” a legal designation that would allow him to clear his name and pursue compensation from the state.

Earlier this month, a Sequoyah County judge dismissed Dority’s case with prejudice, meaning it cannot be refiled. The judge also said Dority had presented enough evidence to show factual innocence.

Dority said receiving $175,000 in exchange for being wrongfully incarcerated for more than two decades doesn’t feel like a fair trade-off.

“I feel like they owe me more than that,” he said. “I don’t know how much more, but I figure they owe me more than that.”

In the meantime, he is drawing on his retirement and contemplating getting a part-time job while enjoying being a grandfather.

Alisa Trang Green, founder and CEO of the Dress for Success Oklahoma City affiliate, brought the issue to Munson’s attention several years ago. Green’s father was wrongfully incarcerated on a rape conviction for much of her childhood.

He was sent to prison when Green was 6 years old and wasn’t released until she was a sophomore in high school. Green’s family hired a private investigator to track down his accuser, who recanted her testimony about 10 years after the initial trial.

After her father was freed, Green’s family spent the next decade working to get his record expunged and pursue American citizenship so he could return to Vietnam to see his family.

He still hasn’t sought wrongful imprisonment compensation from the state, which Green attributed in part to the PTSD he suffers from due to his time behind bars.

Green said the payment, a portion of which would inevitably go to attorneys, falls short.

“Nobody in this world would trade 10 years of their life for $175,000,” she said.

She said her family likely spent more than that on the private investigator and various attorneys to defend her father.

Green, who went to college with Munson, has advocated for lawmakers to increase compensation for exonerees even though her father wouldn’t benefit. None of the proposed legislation would apply retroactively.

“At the end of the day, this happened for a reason, and if we can make it right for other people, then let’s try to do that,” she said.

Oklahoma Voice is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Oklahoma Voice maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Janelle Stecklein for questions: info@oklahomavoice.com. Follow Oklahoma Voice on Facebook and Twitter.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Glynn Simmons may get only $175K for wrongful Oklahoma imprisonment