Legislators propose aid for wrongfully convicted

The state of New York should guarantee health coverage and college tuition to people exonerated after being imprisoned for crimes they didn’t commit, two legislators said Wednesday in proposing a bill that also includes other compensation for people wrongfully convicted. Citing an increase in such cases, Sen. Brad Hoylman and Assemblyman Dan Quart said it’s the state’s responsibility to correct these errors and help these people move on. The Manhattan Democrats said their legislation also would permanently seal those criminal records and authorize reimbursement of attorney fees for work vacating or reversing a wrongful conviction. It would provide lifetime health, dental and mental health insurance coverage with state-paid premiums and cover tuition and fees to state university or city university schools. It would preserve the statutory right to sue for other compensation from the state. Recipients would still be eligible for job training, counseling and drug treatment like other released inmates and parolees. “The state has no more serious responsibility than correcting its own errors,” Quart said. “New York has a duty to ensure that exonerees are made whole as completely as possible.”

The National Registry of Exonerations at the Univer- sity of Michigan Law School lists 1,736 exonerations since 1989. They include a record 149 nationally last year, with 17 in New York. “Incarceration exacts a physical and psychological toll that can be compounded when someone is imprisoned for a crime they did not commit,” Hoylman said. “New York has a moral obligation to help those for whom the criminal justice system has failed.” A draft of their legislation says the benefits won’t be taxable or reduced by any state claim for the cost of housing them in prison. New York’s 17 cases where wrongly convicted defendants were set free last year included 11 out of Brooklyn and two from Erie County, the registry showed.