Florida is poised to expand compensation for people wrongfully imprisoned after key legislative committees on Thursday unanimously approved a measure that would eliminate a long-criticized restriction in the state’s current compensation law.
The House Budget Committee and the Senate Fiscal Policy Committee both gave green lights to identical proposals — Senate Bill 130 and House Bill 59 — that aim to reform Florida’s 2008 statute granting financial compensation to exonerees. The existing law has faced growing scrutiny over its “clean hands” provision, which disqualifies exonerees with prior felony convictions from receiving restitution.
READ: Florida Senate Unveils Bill To Stabilize School Funding Amid Voucher Program Growth
“Unfortunately, [the current law] has failed to live up to its promise of providing much-needed compensation to wrongfully convicted Floridians,” said Sen. Jennifer Bradley, R-Fleming Island, who is sponsoring the Senate version of the bill. “When the bill first passed, exonerees were hopeful, but outdated restrictions in the law have resulted in innocent Floridians being denied compensation.”
Under current law, exonerees declared innocent by the courts are eligible for up to $50,000 per year served in prison, with a cap of $2 million. However, because of the clean hands clause, only five out of the 91 people exonerated in Florida since 1989 have received compensation, according to the National Registry of Exonerations.
The proposed legislation would do away with the clean hands provision entirely, making Florida’s law more consistent with national standards. House sponsor Rep. Traci Koster, R-Tampa, told lawmakers Thursday that Florida is the only state with such a disqualifying clause.
READ: Sen. Ashley Moody Leads Roundtable To Advance Plan To Move NASA Headquarters To Florida
“This bill would better facilitate the process and remove legal barriers to justice for exonerees,” Koster said.
In addition to removing the clean hands clause, the legislation would:
- Extend the window for seeking compensation from 90 days to two years.
- Allow compensation only for individuals whose convictions were vacated by the same court that sentenced them.
- Establish a repayment mechanism in cases where an exoneree receives compensation from the state and later secures a civil settlement related to their wrongful imprisonment.
“This is about doing the right thing for people who had their freedom stolen by mistake,” Sen. Bradley told the Senate committee. “I support strong criminal penalties against criminals, but the people in this bill… are individuals who have been exonerated, found factually innocent. These are cases where the state got it wrong — not intentionally, but the state got it wrong — with hundreds of years of lost liberty by these individuals.”
Support for the measure has been bipartisan and unanimous in both chambers thus far. Lawmakers acknowledged the moral and legal urgency of updating the law to ensure justice is not further delayed for exonerees who have already suffered life-altering injustices.
READ: Senator Burgess’ Zephyrhills Office Vandalized; Police Seek Suspect
The bills now move to the full House and Senate floors for final approval. If passed and signed into law, the changes would mark the most significant overhaul of Florida’s wrongful conviction compensation statute in nearly two decades.
If passed, the updated compensation law is expected to benefit dozens of previously ineligible exonerees and send a strong signal about the state’s commitment to correcting judicial errors and supporting those who were wrongly accused.
Please make a small donation to the Tampa Free Press to help sustain independent journalism. Your contribution enables us to continue delivering high-quality, local, and national news coverage.
Connect with us: Follow the Tampa Free Press on Facebook and Twitter for breaking news and updates.
Sign up: Subscribe to our free newsletter for a curated selection of top stories delivered straight to your inbox.
