What are the financial consequences of wrongful conviction?
The wrongfully imprisoned who eventually regain their freedom suffer profound economic losses. Studies by the Life After Exoneration Project found that over 90 percent of exonerees lost all their assets — savings, vehicles, houses — while imprisoned. Of those who are able to get jobs after their release, 43 percent are paid less than they earned prior to their imprisonment, 39 percent find work at similar pay, and only 17 percent are paid more than their pre-conviction salaries. When corrected for inflation and unemployed exonerees, the vast majority of exonerees never recover their pre-conviction earning potential.
