News Archive
Professor Watson Discusses Compensation for Wrongfully Convicted in 'Governing Magazine'
03/21/2017
Professor Fran Watson, ’80, founder of the Wrongful Conviction Clinic at IU McKinney, was interviewed for an article in Governing Magazine about state laws that outline how the wrongfully convicted will be compensated upon their release from prison.
Some states have compensation laws that outline how the wrongfully convicted will be paid upon their release from prison. Some states pay as much as $80,000 per year for every year spent behind bars, while others will pay $5,000 per year with a $25,000 cap. Indiana has no law on the books outlining how the wrongfully convicted will be compensated, and efforts to craft such a law appear to be over for the 2017 session of the Indiana General Assembly.
“Convictions are still being vacated and people are still being exonerated in Indiana — but we don’t have a compensation law,” Professor Watson said in the story.
Professor Watson is the founding director of the Wrongful Conviction Clinic at IU McKinney. She is a clinical professor of law and teaches in the Criminal Defense Clinic and the Wrongful Conviction Clinic.
