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Since the passage of a 2008 law intended to provide financial compensation for individuals wrongfully convicted of a crime in Florida, only five exonerees have actually received any money from the state because of several flaws in that legislation, while at least 18 who were eligible have been unable to receive the $50,000 for each year that they were unfairly incarcerated.
The latest attempt to correct those flaws is a measure (SB 130) sponsored in the Florida Senate by Fleming Island Republican Jennifer Bradley. That bill passed unanimously in the Senate Appropriations Committee on Criminal and Civil Justice on Wednesday afternoon.
“Just to be clear, this bill is not about having strong penalties against criminals who commit bad acts in our state,” Bradley told the committee. “This bill is with regard to people who are exonerated, who have been found factually innocent by the original sentencing court. That’s the universe of folks we’re talking about, and this bill rights that wrong and gets them the compensation that’s deserved when the state gets something wrong.”
Bradley’s bill (along with its companion in the House sponsored by Tampa Bay Republican Traci Koster) has three main provisions.
The first is that it would remove the “clean hands” provision that disqualifies people who had earlier, unrelated felonies from filing compensation claims — the only restriction of its type in the country.
It would extend the filing deadline for those have been exonerated from 90 days to two years and create a process for people who receive compensation to repay the state if they receive a civil settlement.
Bradley filed a similar bill in 2024 that was never heard in a committee, but Wednesday’s vote was the second in committee this year to pass the measure unanimously. The proposal now has just one more committee stop in the Senate before going to the full chamber for a vote.
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