Louisiana AG Liz Murrill Keeps Opposing Compensation for Wrongfully Convicted People — ProPublica

Hard Line on Payments: In her two years in the role, Louisiana attorney general Liz Murrill has opposed almost all compensation claims by wrongfully convicted people. 

Freed After Four Decades: Elvis Brooks’ murder conviction was thrown out after a prosecutor admitted he hid potentially exonerating evidence. Murrill maintains he’s guilty. 

A Higher Bar: Twenty-three people have sought compensation after judges threw out their convictions. Murrill has asserted that 22 have failed to sufficiently prove their innocence…

 https://www.propublica.org/article/louisiana-wrongful-conviction-compensation-liz-murrill-elvis-brooks

 

Detroit man freed 27 years to the day after wrongful conviction

A Detroit man is now free after spending exactly 27 years in prison for a murder he didn't commit. 

Roy Blackmon was released from a state correctional facility in Ionia on Tuesday, after a judge agreed to vacate his convictions from a 1998 murder. His lawyers with the University of Michigan Law School's Innocence Clinic say his convictions rested solely on the testimony of witnesses who were coerced into implicating him by Detroit police officers at the time...

https://www.michiganpublic.org/criminal-justice-legal-system/2026-04-01/detroit-man-freed-27-years-to-the-day-after-wrongful-conviction 

 

Why is Michigan Failing to Compensate the Wrongly Convicted? — ProPublica

Michigan has the fifth-most exonerations in the country, according to the National Registry of Exonerations: 169 wrongful convictions in state courts since 1989, with an average of nearly 11 years of incarceration. Passed with bipartisan support, WICA was intended as a lifeline for former prisoners who were wrongfully convicted and to account, in part, for the harm done to them. 

Of the 103 people who filed claims between 2017 and late 2023, about 68% received compensation, according to Jeffrey S. Gutman, a clinical law professor at George Washington University who researches compensation statutes across the country. 

Advocates and people who were wrongfully imprisoned have said that the money often makes a huge difference at an impossibly vulnerable time. Many are rebuilding with no family, no home, no job prospects, no driver's license, no resources to navigate trauma…

https://www.propublica.org/article/why-michigan-failing-compensate-wrongly-convicted-despite-law

Two Los Angeles county men exonerated after spending decades in prison | Los Angeles | The Guardian

Hernandez said on Wednesday his and Solorio's cases were not unique. "There are more people in there who are innocent," he said. "I just want to be that voice for those who cannot speak who are still in juvenile hall, or LA county jail filing a case or in prison spending decades for a crime they did not commit."…

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/dec/14/los-angeles-county-men-exonerated-wrongful-conviction

‘It’s finally over’: two men set free after wrongly serving 17 years in prison

During a five-year investigation, defense investigators found multiple other witnesses who said, "Oh no, they weren't the shooters, they never had a gun," Della Donna said.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/apr/20/dupree-glass-juan-rayford-freed-wrongly-convicted