New York has paid out the most of any state in the US to people wrongly incarcerated, according to a new study.
The latest research was produced by High Rise Financial, a pre-settlement legal funding company.
The company analyzed data from the National Registry of Exonerations, a database on exonerated people in each state that has been regularly updated since 1989. The registry also tracks how much each state has paid out to wrongfully incarcerated people.
New York state has paid out a total of $322m to those wrongfully incarcerated. The state has awarded 237 claims for wrongful imprisonment out of 326 exonerated people. Such payouts cost New York taxpayers $15.97 per person, also the largest per-capita payment out of any state, the study found.
Texas, Connecticut, Maryland and Michigan were the other states in the top five that paid out the most to exonerated people.
Texas paid out the second highest amount, awarding a total of $155m to 128 people out of 450 people exonerated.
The most recent study comes as the amount of exoneration has steadily increased in recent years, according to Maurice Chammah, a journalist with the Marshall Project and author.
Chammah said the current figures from states such as New York could signal that more lawmakers are taking wrongfully conviction seriously.
“It suggests that New York takes really seriously the task of rectifying these massive, life-altering mistakes that the state can make when it wrongfully convicts people,” Chammah said of the latest research.
Chammah added that while the total dollar amounts may look high, the cost of rebuilding life after a wrongful conviction is also significant.
“What many people don’t understand is how much work it is when you’ve been wrongfully convicted to rebuild your life after prison,” Chammah said.
Chammah added that getting compensation for a wrong conviction can be tough in some states. In Texas, where lawmakers have paid out large sums to exonerees, legislators have also placed “really harsh limits on accessing that money”.
“You sometimes need to be declared actually innocent by a court in a way that is like a very high and difficult barrier to meet,” Chammah said.
Overall, Chammah noted that such figures could prompt legislators to pass bills that could limit wrongful incarceration in the first place, including limiting controversial forensic techniques or the capacity for police to get away with lying during interrogations.
“It raises the question of, just as a matter of dollars and cents, could we pass laws that reduce the likelihood of this happening and save us money in the long term?” Chammah said.
