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News 08.14.14

Georgia Legislators Consider Setting Compensation Standard

Georgia legislators eager to set a compensation standard for the wrongly convicted gathered in Atlanta on Wednesday to hear testimony about the range of past payments to eight exonerees from across the state. The Morris News Service reported that the amount of compensation for each year behind bars in Georgia has ranged from about $17,000 to $750,000, with stipulations about employment and drug testing being made in one case.

 

The Morris News Service reports that Representative Rahn Mayo of Decatur believes that compensation should be given without conditions. “Is it not true that the state is in the wrong … that the state has some responsibility to compensate these people unconditionally?” he said, according to the new service.

 

Currently, there are no guidelines in Georgia for how much money a wrongly convicted person should be compensated, but Columbus Representative Carolyn Hugley, head of the study committee, wants to change that. Hugley would like to see Georgia match the

federal standard of $50,000 per year

, which has been adopted by several other states.

 

The state’s eight exonerees who received compensation all saw their convictions overturned based on DNA testing in rape cases.

 


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