ST. PAUL – The Minnesota House has passed a bill authored by State Rep. John Lesch (DFL- St. Paul) that would compensate Minnesotans who were wrongfully imprisoned and later found innocent (HF 2925). The bill passed on a broad bipartisan vote of 121-2. The federal court system, District of Columbia, and 29 states have such compensation statutes currently existing in law.
“The government should be able to admit when it did something wrong, and try to correct that. In the last 50 years there have only been three cases where this bill would apply,” said Rep. Lesch. “I was very excited to bring this bill forward, to correct a wrong that’s done by the criminal justice system, if it ever happens.”
In recent Minnesota history, three people – Koua Fong Lee, Sherman Townsend, and Michael Hansen – have been found innocent after spending time in prison.
“I’ve been a prosecutor for 13 years, and I know that most of the time our system is outstanding,” said Rep. Lesch. “We do a good job of getting to the truth, finding out if a wrong happened, and how we try to address that wrong. Because we’re human, mistakes get made, and this is an effort to make sure one mistake doesn’t destroy an entire life.”
According to the bill, wrongfully imprisoned persons would go before an independent panel that would determine damages incurred to the individual based on years served in prison, income when they went into prison, family and living expenses, the difficulty of finding employment after imprisonment, potentially lost years of education, and other considerations.
The legislation now awaits a vote in the Minnesota Senate.