Michigan got wrongful-conviction compensation right

David R. Hoffman, Retired Civil Rights and Constitutional Law Attorney. No AI was used in the writing of this article. USA TODAY Network, Reuters

Michigan and Indiana may share a lengthy border, but in terms of fairness they are often thousands of miles apart.

Recently, local news outlets in Northern Indiana reported on the case of Iris Seabolt, an Elkhart County woman who spent almost 19 years in prison but was recently exonerated. Her attorneys, according to the news report, stated that the case against her had been built on both fabricated evidence and the withholding of exculpatory evidence.

Seabolt’s case is especially relevant because, according to at least two investigations, Elkhart County has the worst wrongful conviction rate in the state, and the fifth worst, considering its population, in the nation.

In 2001, I wrote an opinion piece for the South Bend Tribune that argued that an African American man imprisoned a few years earlier was innocent. His first trial had been held in front of a racially diverse jury that could not reach a verdict, so he was retried in front of an all-white jury and convicted.

After my article was published, I was informed by a friend of mine at the Tribune that a state police investigator had apparently read it and went to interview this man. He also became convinced of his innocence, and a few months later the true perpetrators (yes, there were more than one) were caught.

This man was released after serving over five years and subsequently sued for compensation for the time he had been wrongfully imprisoned. A federal magistrate, however, dismissed his case on the grounds that he could not prove he had been prosecuted in “bad faith.”

I could not help but ponder how vile it was that Indiana’s legal system could literally take years, even decades, from an innocent person’s life and not have to pay a penny for doing so; thus, throughout the years, I would periodically write letters arguing that all states should have laws to compensate the wrongly convicted.

Fortunately, Michigan’s wrongful conviction compensation law went into effect in 2017 while Indiana’s went into effect two years later. Both laws award $50,000 for each year a person was wrongfully imprisoned.

But this is where they differ. Michigan allows the wrongly convicted to also file lawsuits without penalty for doing so. If they win a judgment in court, the amount they are awarded is deducted from the amount they are entitled to under its compensation law. If they win a judgment after having already been paid through this law, they have to repay the state. This is to prevent “double-dipping.”

By contrast, to collect under Indiana’s law, the wrongly convicted have to agree to “forever” refrain from suing the state and the individuals involved in their case or choose to go to trial and risk receiving no compensation at all.

This is an egregious catch-22, because essentially what Indiana is saying is that even though it wrongfully convicted and imprisoned you, and perhaps even engaged in misconduct to do so, you either take the money this law gives you and let the circumstances of your wrongful conviction remain unexplored, or gamble on the uncertainties and machinations of a court case and potentially get nothing for the time you’ve lost.

This is not only a revictimization of people who have already proven their innocence, but also a license for those responsible for their wrongful convictions to avoid any scrutiny or accountability for their actions.

For years Michigan and Indiana lawmakers had the opportunity to do the right thing and pass laws to compensate the wrongly convicted and they failed to do so. Even though both states have now corrected this, Michigan’s law seems designed to be a remedy while Indiana’s seems designed to facilitate cover-ups and misconduct.

David R. Hoffman is a retired civil rights and constitutional law attorney.

This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Michigan got wrongful-conviction compensation right | Opinion

Reporting by David R. Hoffman, Guest Columnist / The Holland Sentinel

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