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2022 SESSION

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HB 397 Wrongful incarceration; compensation.

Introduced by: Richard C. "Rip" Sullivan, Jr. | all patrons    ...    notes | add to my profiles | history

SUMMARY AS PASSED:

Compensation for wrongful incarceration. Modifies the formula for compensating wrongfully incarcerated persons to equal $55,000 per year of incarceration, adjusted for inflation, changes the amount of compensation that may be paid out as a lump sum to equal 25 percent of the total award with the remainder to be paid out as an annuity with a term of 10 years, provides that the General Assembly may pay to the wrongfully incarcerated person the amount of court costs and other charges incurred to receive the compensation, and allows a wrongfully incarcerated person who submitted an Alford plea to receive compensation for such wrongful incarceration. The bill also provides an income tax subtraction for any compensation awarded to a wrongfully incarcerated person. This bill is identical to SB 755.

SUMMARY AS PASSED HOUSE:

Compensation for wrongful incarceration. Modifies the formula for compensating wrongfully incarcerated persons to equal $55,000 per year of incarceration, adjusted for inflation, changes the amount of compensation that may be paid out as a lump sum to equal 25 percent of the total award, with the remainder to be paid out as an annuity with a term of 10 years, provides that the General Assembly may pay to the wrongfully incarcerated person the amount of court costs and other charges incurred to receive the compensation, and allows a wrongfully incarcerated person who submitted an Alford plea to receive compensation for such wrongful incarceration. The bill also provides an income tax subtraction for any compensation awarded to a wrongfully incarcerated person.

SUMMARY AS INTRODUCED:

Compensation for wrongful incarceration. Removes the following requirements for a wrongfully incarcerated person to receive compensation for such wrongful incarceration: (i) that the person shall have entered a final plea of not guilty, or, regardless of the plea, the person incarcerated was convicted of a Class 1 felony, a Class 2 felony, or any felony for which the maximum penalty is imprisonment for life and (ii) that the person incarcerated did not by any act or omission on his part intentionally contribute to his conviction for the felony for which he was incarcerated. The bill also requires the person to be compensated in an amount equal to the product of the total number of days that the person was wrongfully incarcerated following a wrongful conviction multiplied by the daily rate of the Commonwealth's most recent annual median household income as published in the American Community Survey of the United States Census Bureau in the year the court finds the claimant eligible and divided by 365 days to the nearest whole cent, in addition to other possible compensation.