Associated Press
LUSK, Wyo. — A Wyoming legislative committee endorsed two bills on Thursday that could help state convicts who say they’re innocent of the crimes that sent them to prison.
The Joint Judiciary Committee voted in Lusk to endorse one bill that would allow the state to compensate inmates who are cleared by DNA evidence. It would allow payments of $75 a day, up to a cap of $300,000.
The committee also endorsed a bill that would establish a procedure in state law to allow inmates to argue that they’re innocent of crimes for which they’ve been convicted in cases where there’s no DNA evidence. If prisoners use the provision to clear their names, they would be eligible for the same compensation.
The bills will go before the full Legislature early next year.
The Utah-based Rocky Mountain Innocence Center has worked with Wyoming lawmakers for the past several years to change state law to create legal avenues for inmates who maintain their innocence to challenge their convictions.
The center was behind the successful push in 2008 to change Wyoming law specifically to allow a way for former inmate Andrew J. Johnson, now in his early 60s, to assert that DNA evidence would prove that he was innocent of a rape conviction.
Johnson’s lawyers filed papers this spring reporting that testing at the state crime lab concluded that he was not the source of DNA recovered from the victim following her 1989 attack.
A district judge in Cheyenne this April ordered a new trial for Johnson, freeing him on bond after he had served more than 23 years.
Scott Homar, Laramie County district attorney, has said his office is reviewing Johnson’s case and charges are still pending. A judge has set a trial date for October while Johnson’s lawyer has asked that the charges against his client be dismissed.
Jensie L. Anderson, legal director of the Rocky Mountain Innocence Center, testified in favor of both bills.
Anderson said she doesn’t believe Johnson would qualify for compensation under the pending bill because it wouldn’t apply retroactively.
Anderson told lawmakers that all 50 states now have laws that allow people to challenge their convictions on the basis of DNA evidence. But she said only Utah and Virginia have statutes that allow people to challenge convictions in cases not involving DNA on the grounds that they’re actually innocent.
While it’s possible for people convicted in state court to challenge their convictions in federal court, Anderson said that requires that they allege constitutional violations, such as saying that a prosecutor withheld evidence. She said there are also strict time limits on bringing claims alleging that new evidence has emerged in a case.
Since Utah adopted its law in 2008 allowing convicts to challenge their convictions in cases that don’t involve DNA, Anderson said there have only been about 15 such challenges filed there.
She said three have resulted in legal findings of innocence — two by stipulation of prosecutors and one through a ruling this week by the state supreme court.
The pending Wyoming bill would require convicts to file a petition in court spelling out what newly discovered evidence clearly establishes their innocence. The committee amended the bill to specify that there would be no appeal to the Wyoming Supreme Court if the lower court judge dismissed the inmate’s petition.
Casper District Attorney Mike Blonigen told lawmakers that passing the non-DNA actual innocence bill would be an important step for the state to deal with such cases.
He said it would also maintain a fairly high standard, “so we’re not re-litigating every conviction we have.”
Rep. Keith Gingery, R-Jackson, is both a criminal prosecutor and chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. He said the Legislature wasn’t able to agree on compensation when it passed the DNA testing bill in 2008 and said he was pleased to address the issue now.
Noting that only two other states have enacted laws that allow people to challenge their convictions in cases that don’t involve DNA evidence, Gingery said, “it’s exciting when Wyoming can be on the cutting edge of protecting the innocence of its citizens.”