Wrongfully convicted inmates face new obstacle for payment

There may be no $ Redress for those Wrongly Convicted

A law providing compensation for people who were wrongly imprisoned may be of no benefit to some of them because of a quiet change made this year. The new provision, included without the knowledge of the law's author, requires people seeking state reparations to get a letter from the district attorney whose office prosecuted them, attesting to their "actual innocence." The new clause could make it impossible for Josiah Sutton to collect more than $100,000 for the four and a half years he spent in prison for a 1998 rape before he was pardoned. Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal said in Thursday editions of the Houston Chronicle that he will not send the necessary letter. "If I knew he was innocent, I would. But I don't know that now," Rosenthal said, discounting Sutton's May pardon. "If you give me some good reason to believe (the victim) was mistaken, I will probably send the letter." State Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, said he was never consulted about the new condition, included in the voluminous comptroller's fiscal matters bill approved every session. Ellis is one of the sponsors of the 2001 measure that allows exonerated inmates to collect $25,000 per year of incarceration. He said the law did not need to be adjusted. "Someone has slipped into state law in the dark of night a provision that says even if you have a pardon you have to have a letter from the district attorney saying you are actually innocent," Ellis said. "It's ridiculous." [more