The Associated Press
AUSTIN, Texas — A man imprisoned in Texas for nearly two decades for slayings he did not commit will be paid $1.4 million compensation.
The Houston Chronicle reports that Gov. Rick Perry has signed a bill authorizing payments to Anthony Graves of $80,000 for each of the 18 years he spent in prison.
In 2006, a federal appeals court overturned Graves’ conviction in the 1992 killing of a grandmother and five children and ordered a new trial. He was later declared innocent.
Perry signed the bill Friday. The governor has said the years that the now-45-year-old spent in prison represent “a great miscarriage of justice.”
An internal Internal Revenue Service memo indicates that compensation for exonerated former prisoners is not subject to federal income taxes. Texas does not have a state income tax.