Dispatch from Michigan: A Perfect Day

By Ken Wyniemko, Michigan Exoneree

May 21, 2008 was a perfect day. It was the day that Walter Swift walked out of prison a free man after 26 years of wrongful incarceration. I know the feeling, just through my own experience; I know how it feels to walk out of prison, in my case after almost ten years, and have absolutely nothing. Both Walter and Nathaniel Hatchett, who was released on April 14, are going through the same thing I did. It felt so good to be there to help Walter, just as it was to help Nathaniel Hatchett when he was released last month. I gave each of them a big hug and a check for $500 from the Kenneth Wyniemko Foundation, which I have established to help people who have been exonerated after serving time for a wrongful conviction.

In Michigan, currently, anyone who is wrongfully imprisoned and freed doesn’t have access to compensation. I’m trying to correct that problem. I’m going to Lansing next week to testify before the House Judiciary Committee again on behalf of a bill that would provide $50,000 per year of wrongful imprisonment. It would also provide all lost wages during the time that you were wrongfully imprisoned as well as reimbursement for any attorney fees, and it would provide ten years of healthcare covered by the state of Michigan.

I have also testified about a bill that would extend and expand the current DNA statute in Michigan. House Bill 5089 would remove any time limits, any expiration date, because the current statute it is set to expire in January 2009. Another good thing about this bill: it would remove the restriction that people who pled guilty are not eligible for post-conviction DNA testing. In 11 of the DNA exonerations around the country, an innocent person pled guilty. And 25% of the DNA exonerations involved false confessions or admissions, including the case of my friend Eddie Joe Lloyd who was exonerated in Michigan in 2002. So if you look at the numbers, you can see that post-conviction DNA testing should be provided wherever it could prove innocence. Also under the current law, if you were convicted of a crime after January 8, 2001, you are currently barred from applying for DNA testing, and we’re trying to get that roadblock removed also.

If Michigan’s DNA access statute wasn’t passed originally, in 2001, I would still be in prison. I read that statute for the first time as a law librarian at the correctional center, and I actually started crying because I was thinking to myself, “This is exactly what I need to prove my innocence.” It has been a main goal of mine to never let the law expire. I testified about it on three separate occasions, and it’s already passed in the House and hopefully it will pass in the Senate either this week or next.

I’m so happy and blessed to be able to help. It makes my life worthwhile. I don’t want anyone to have to struggle like I did.

Read more about the cases of

Ken Wyniemko

,

Walter Swift

and

Nathaniel Hatchett

.