A Georgia House Republican and Democrat introduced bipartisan legislation Thursday to overhaul the system used to compensate the wrongfully convicted in Georgia.
Current law requires a person who has been exonerated after spending years in prison for a crime they didn’t commit to find a legislative sponsor to introduce a compensation resolution. The House has passed a series of such resolutions in recent years, but the Senate has refused to take them up. It would remove the General Assembly from the process of compensating wrongfully convicted Georgians. Instead, claims for compensation would be heard by administrative law judges, who would make a recommendation to the chief justice of the state Supreme Court.
Exonerated individuals who are able to prove their innocence based on a “preponderance of evidence” would receive $75,000 in compensation for every year they have been incarcerated.
