(Source: MIRS.news, Published 10/02/2024) An exoneree would face fewer hurdles to receiving state compensation for having been wrongfully convicted under a Sen. Stephanie Chang (D-Detroit) bill that received a hearing Wednesday in the Senate Civil Rights, Judiciary and Public Safety Committee.

SB 997 is identical to Rep. Joey Andrews (D-St. Joseph)'s HB 5431, which moved out of the House Criminal Justice Committee in March. 

At issue is Michigan's Wrongful Imprisonment Compensation Act (WICA), which offers an incarcerated person $50,000 in compensation for each year they were wrongfully in prison. A plaintiff can file a WICA claim after their conviction is vacated due to the dismissal of charges or when a retrial finds them not guilty. 

Currently, exonerees must present new evidence that falls under the "clear and convincing evidence" standard in order to receive compensation.

According to LegalMatch, the private company for lawyer ratings and quotes, "clear and convincing evidence" is often used in cases involving fraud, breach of contract and intellectual property issues. The article explains that it's a standard lower than the "beyond a reasonable doubt" expectation for evidence, but is "a higher standard of proof than the 'preponderance of the evidence.'" 

"Preponderance of evidence" will be the burden of proof needed for making a WICA claim under today's Senate bill. 

Additionally, SB 997 instructs the Court of Claims to specifically give "due consideration" to how the passage of time, the possible destruction of evidence, the death of witnesses and other factors uncontrollable by the parties could affect the presentation of evidence. 

Marla Mitchell-Cichon, counsel of the Cooley Law School Innocence Project, which directly worked on the exoneration of nine incarcerated people, said "clear and convincing evidence" is not the standard often imposed on private citizens. 

"It's the standard in which the government is held to a higher standard in order to take away one of your rights. For example, to remove your child from your home, that standard is 'clear and convincing,'" Mitchell-Cichon said. "If I sue because of a car accident, and I have to prove that the other party is responsible for my car accident, the standard of proof is the 'preponderance of evidence.'" 

Mitchell-Cichon described SB 997 as an effort to correct the shortcomings of the WICA statute that is less than 10 years old. 

"What we hope it will do is, one: not make it impossible to successfully file a WICA claim," she said, explaining how she wants SB 997 where, if a post-conviction proceeding rules that evidence was not sufficient to sentence someone in the first place, that person has a clearer path to be compensated. 

According to an August 2024 report affiliated with George Washington University Law School, Michigan has the third-highest number of exonerees denied compensation, following New York and California. 

Twenty-five of 107 people listed in the National Registry of Exonerations were denied compensation when they filed a WICA claim, since the law went into effect on March 29, 2017. Meanwhile, five of those claims were still pending as of August. 

In December 2022, the Michigan Supreme Court's now-former Chief Justice Bridget McCormack called for legislators to "please fix" WICA so more improperly imprisoned people could seek financial relief. Her remarks were related to Charles Dale Perry Jr., whose 1990 rape conviction was reversed due to his counsel failing to call defense witnesses and failing to object to repeated misconduct by the prosecutor. 

However, the new evidence presented by the witnesses, as there were about a dozen, in Perry's retrial that resulted in him being acquitted, did not satisfy WICA's evidence standards. 

One of today's testifiers was Kenneth Nixon, a Detroiter who wrongfully spent nearly 16 years in prison following an arson conviction that involved the death of two children. 

"I was what would be considered a victim of that language. I was forced to settle with the Attorney General's office for less than what the statute allows me to receive because of the language that currently sits," Nixon said. 

Nixon described exonerees sleeping in people's basements and on others' couches, with the lack of WICA approval keeping dismissed convictions un-expunged and left on their records. 

"I was denied an Airbnb account because of a background check. These things are very difficult to navigate. Most of society (doesn't) know how to navigate these things," Nixon said, describing why someone who doesn't have an explanation for why WICA doesn't apply to them has a hard time making their case to potential employers or anyone else. 

Moreover, SB 997 expands access to WICA compensation to someone who was pardoned by the Governor "on the basis of actual innocence" for the crime they were incarcerated for.

Sen. Jim Runestad (R-White Lake) – the minority vice chair of the Senate Civil Rights, Judiciary and Public Safety Committee – wanted reassurance that the legislation recognizes a process where the pardoned person must have their innocence proven. He asked if "actual innocence" is defined by the Governor's opinion, or by a step-by-step process. 

"'The basis of actual innocence . . .' Is that actual innocence?" Runestad asked. "We can all remember cases, egregious cases, (of) the guiltiest of the guilty being pardoned, I mean, it's happened over and over on the national level (and) state after state."