Michigan’s inadequate compensation law will be corrected

Michigan’s Wrongful Damages Act is within the technique of receiving what many say is a much-needed amendment after 15 Democratic senators sent the bill through the Michigan House of Representatives.

According to reports, the bill leaves the eligibility requirements to those that should receive compensation from the state completely disconnect from the conversation.

Marvin Cotton Jr., who had his murder conviction overturned in 2020, described the impact of the Wrongful Compensation Act this manner: “You fight for years to prove that your wrongful conviction was, in fact, wrong,” Cotton said. “And then immediately when you get out, you take on this new war and you keep trying to prove yourself again.”

According to Wolf Mueller, a lawyer representing lots of the claimants, the unique law was written poorly.

“If you should not have been tried at all because there was insufficient evidence to convict you, you should receive damages,” Mueller said. “You are as wrongly convicted as anyone else who was lucky enough to find new evidence.”

According to Robyn Frankel, deputy attorney general and director of the Conviction Integrity Unit, the changes within the law profit those wrongfully convicted.

Frankel testified on the hearing on the proposed amendments: “removing the requirement that new evidence be cause for dismissal was based on our awareness that specific explanations are often not provided when a case is dismissed.”

Republican Joey Andrews, the bill’s lead sponsor, hopes more representatives, including Republicans, will sign on to it. The levers of power in Michigan are controlled by the Democratic Party, and the following stage of labor on the bill will be the Senate if it passes the House.

But Kenneth Nixon, co-founder and president of the Exonerees Organization, a nonprofit group, wants the laws to go further.

Nixon wrote a letter to the committee on March 11, arguing that the law should be applied retroactively.

Nixon also supported a two-year window for potential claimants to present their cases. He also advocated for the amounts awarded to be adjusted for inflation, which might barely increase the quantity awarded.

Mueller agrees with the spirit of Nixon’s letter, stating that the pay “is not just life-changing from a monetary standpoint; it is a point of view about dignity. Someone saw that they had been wronged and wanted to make amends.”