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CONTACT: Maricela Cueva
VPE Public Relations
(626) 403-3200 ext. 215
maricela@vpepr.com
INNOCENCE PROJECT APPLAUDS CALIFORNIA BOARD DECISION TO COMPENSATE
EXONEREE
April 2008-A California board voted this week to award $30,000
in compensation to James Ochoa for the 10 months he spent in
prison for a carjacking he didn't commit. Ochoa was exonerated
in 2006 when DNA testing on evidence from the crime scene proved
his innocence. He pled guilty to the crime to avoid the possibility
of a long sentence if convicted at trial.
California law provides $100 per day of wrongful incarceration,
but only if the defendant did not "contribute to the bringing
about of his arrest or conviction." A hearing officer's
report submitted to the board argued that Ochoa should be denied
compensation because his guilty plea brought about his wrongful
conviction. The board voted in favor of granting the compensation,
however.
”The state has an obligation to compensate innocent people
who were wrongfully convicted. At the Innocence Project, we have
seen many cases where people admit to crimes they did not commit;
often, they believe they’ll end up being convicted even
though they’re innocent and they fear a lengthy prison
sentence,”
said Alba Morales, staff attorney at the Innocence Project. “There
is a tremendous need to inform policymakers and the public on
the need for compensation statues to ensure that the wrongfully
convicted receive some type of compensation for the months, years
or decades they lost. Less than half of the states in the country
provide compensation to people who were wrongfully convicted,
which is why we are advocating for compensation laws for all
states.”
An innocent person wrongly convicted of a crime is robbed of
his freedom, his family and friendships, and his livelihood – in
order to be subjected to the unique horror of prison. Unfortunately,
the nightmare does not end there. With no money, housing, transportation,
health services or insurance, and a criminal record that is rarely
cleared despite innocence, the punishment lingers long after
innocence has been proven. States have a responsibility to restore
these innocents’ lives to the best of their abilities.
Despite their proven innocence, the difficulty of reentering
society is profound for exonerees.
The following twenty-three states, in addition to the District
of Columbia, have compensation statutes of some form: Alabama,
California, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts,
Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North
Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia,
West Virginia and Wisconsin.
Even many of those states’ laws are inadequate. The Innocence
Project recommends that states provide at least $50,000 per year
of wrongful incarceration, plus critical services like healthcare,
job training and tuition reimbursement.
Two civil rights attorneys, Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld, at
the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University founded
the Innocence Project in 1992. The Innocence Project is a national
litigation and public policy organization dedicated to exonerating
wrongfully convicted people through DNA testing and reforming
the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice. More
than 200 people in the United States have been exonerated since
its inception, including 19 Latinos.
For more information, visit www.innocenceproject.org |
