Kentucky Needs to Pass a Compensation Statute

Today, the Louisville Courier published an article calling attention to Kentucky’s lack of a compensation law, which would provide monetary compensation to those who have been exonerated of convictions for crimes that they didn’t commit.

According to the Courier, in 2001 State Senator General Neal, D-Louisville, proposed a compensation bill that ultimately failed to leave the Senate Judiciary Committee. Recent efforts have also been unsuccessful: Neal and two other lawmakers have introduced 10 bills over the past two decades, none of which have received a hearing. There is no related legislation pending this year in the General Assembly.

“It is horrendous,” said Neal. “It undermines confidence in the justice system when we make mistakes, and people who are victims of them should be paid for them.”

Since 2007, the city of Louisville has spent $21.4 million on settlements, including $7.5 million announced this week for Kerry Porter, who was incarcerated for 11 years after being wrongly convicted of murder.

Read more about compensating the wrongfully convicted here: https://www.innocenceproject.org/compensating-wrongly-convicted/.