Idaho has chance to do the right thing by paying those wrongfully convicted
A bill moving through the state Legislature that would compensate someone wrongly convicted of a crime is the right thing to do.
Idaho is one of only 15 states in the country that does not offer compensation to someone convicted of crime he or she did not commit.
Further, innocent exonerees are not even entitled to the same transition benefits provided for anyone else being released from prison. Someone who was found guilty of a crime they didn’t commit gets even fewer services than someone who actually committed a crime and is released.
The proposed legislation, from Rep. Doug Ricks, R-Rexburg, stems from the wrongful conviction of Chris Tapp, who was wrongly convicted and exonerated more than 20 years after being sentenced to prison in the rape and murder of Angie Dodge in 1998 in Idaho Falls. He was exonerated in July 2019.
“An exonerated person is completely left on his own after he is released from prison,” according to Ricks’ legislation.
The bill would provide $60,000 per year of wrongful incarceration, or $75,000 per year on death row, with an additional $25,000 for years wrongfully spent on parole on the sex offender registry.
The fiscal note on Ricks’ bill states that the National Registry of Exonerations shows that there have been six known exonerations in the state of Idaho in the past 30 years, with four of those exonerees being eligible to file for compensation. If all four were to apply for and receive compensation, the maximum total impact would be $3.69 million. However, the state would be entitled to some offsets under the bill, and the state is reimbursed if an individual wins a civil settlement. Three of the four have settled, according to Ricks’ fiscal note, and reimbursement could reduce that amount by at least $2 million.
Moving forward, given the past rate of exonerations over 30 years, the annual impact is estimated at $45,000 to $123,000.
This, for sure, is a small price to pay for wrongfully convicting someone and depriving them of their life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.
“We essentially just put (the wrongfully convicted) out on the side of the street and say sorry,” Ricks told EastIdahoNews.com. “We’re trying to fix that with this bill.”
This bill also ensures that the state has skin in the game, that there’s a vested interest on the part of the state of Idaho to make sure counties have adequate public defenders and proper training and oversight for prosecutors and judges.
We don’t believe these fees are so high that they would inhibit the state from owning up to wrongful accusations. In other words, the fees aren’t so high that they would give pause to a prosecuting attorney about releasing a suspect because they were concerned about expense to the state.
The bill would also provide some services, such as health insurance, medical care, mental health counseling, tuition assistance, job assistance, personal finance literacy and housing services. The services that are in the bill are similar to services that convicted felons are able to receive when they are released from prison.
This is key, as Kendra Knighten, policy specialist for Idaho Voices for Children, noted in a guest opinion in the Idaho Statesman, lack of access to a home is closely associated with recidivism among formerly incarcerated people.
The Idaho Innocence Project, led by Boise State University professor Greg Hampikian, announced it supports Ricks’ bill, according to EastIdahoNews.com.
“(Christopher) Tapp and others in his situation face the difficulty of life after exoneration in Idaho,” according to a news release from Boise State University.
We strongly support this legislation and commend Rep. Ricks for bringing this forward, recognizing a shortfall in Idaho’s treatment of wrongfully convicted exonerees.
It’s the right thing to do and the least we can do to make a wrong situation right.