Are there laws providing compensation to the wrongfully convicted?
A study by The Innocence Project found that only 37 percent of the wrongly convicted received any compensation at all from the government, and the compensation those few did receive was often woefully inadequate. Under existing U.S. law, a wrongfully imprisoned federal convict can receive a maximum of $5,000, total, in compensation after exoneration, no matter how many years they spent unjustly imprisoned. (28 U.S.C. ยง 2513). There is legislation pending, however, that would increase the amount of compensation available. First introduced in 2000 by Reps. Ray LaHood (R-Ill.) and William Delahunt (D-Mass.), the Innocence Protection Act (IPA), a criminal justice bill aimed at reducing the risk that innocent persons may be executed, would increase the compensation for wrongful imprisonment to $50,000 per year of incarceration, $100,000 per year if the inmate received a death sentence. In addition, the IPA would afford greater access to DNA testing for convicted offenders and help states im
