Arizona Legislature Moves Towards Compensating Exonerated Individuals, Including Eleven People Wrongfully Death Sentenced

The Arizona leg­is­la­ture is con­sid­er­ing new leg­is­la­tion that will com­pen­sate exon­er­at­ed indi­vid­u­als. HB 2813 was intro­duced in February by Republican Representative Khyl Powell and eas­i­ly passed in the Arizona House of Representatives in a 59 – 1 vote two weeks lat­er. The bill is now await­ing con­sid­er­a­tion by the Senate Judiciary and Elections Committee, and accord­ing to report­ing by the Daily Independent it is being ​“con­sid­ered for inclu­sion as part of a final budget package.” 

The bill would enti­tle indi­vid­u­als who have been exon­er­at­ed to seek finan­cial com­pen­sa­tion, coun­sel­ing, and job train­ing. In addi­tion, indi­vid­u­als may also seek an evi­den­tiary hear­ing to seek com­pen­sa­tion for ​“rein­te­gra­tive ser­vices and men­tal and phys­i­cal health care costs” post-release, as well as unre­im­bursed costs, fines, fees or sur­charges, resti­tu­tion, attor­ney fees up to $25,000, and ​“any oth­er dam­ages” suf­fered by the indi­vid­ual as a result of the erroneous conviction. 

According to the fis­cal note com­plied by the Arizona Joint Legislative Budget Committee (JLBC) that accom­pa­nied the bill, there have been twen­ty-four exon­er­a­tions in Arizona since 1989, and DPI data indi­cates more than a third of that group were serv­ing time on Arizona’s death row pri­or to exon­er­a­tion. The JLBC esti­mates that the costs per indi­vid­ual for ​“past erro­neous con­vic­tions” would be $937,500¹, not includ­ing poten­tial costs aris­ing from an indi­vid­ual who might take advan­tage of the pro­vi­sions in the bill that would allow them an evi­den­tiary hear­ing to deter­mine if addi­tion­al com­pen­sa­tion is warranted. 

Since 1973, at least 200 peo­ple who were wrong­ly con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death in the U.S. have been exon­er­at­ed. Eleven indi­vid­u­als on Arizona’s death row have been exon­er­at­ed since 1978. Collectively they spent just under 100 years wrong­ful­ly incar­cer­at­ed before their release and indi­vid­u­al­ly almost nine years (8.9 years) on aver­age ¾ more than twice the aver­age time (5.6 years) served for all Arizona exonerees gen­er­al­ly, as cal­cu­lat­ed by the JLBC. Seven of the eleven cas­es involved per­jury or false accu­sa­tions, and six of the eleven cas­es involved official misconduct.

Ray Krone would be one of the indi­vid­u­als eli­gi­ble for com­pen­sa­tion should the bill become law. Mr. Krone was wrong­ly con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death in 1992 in Arizona for first-degree mur­der based on now dis­cred­it­ed bite-mark evi­dence. Mr. Krone main­tained his inno­cence through­out his tri­al. Saliva and blood were found at the crime scene, but the evi­dence was not sub­ject to DNA test­ing until twen­ty years lat­er. Mr. Krone was grant­ed a new tri­al on appeal in 1996, and was resen­tenced to life in prison, again on the tes­ti­mo­ny of experts that bite marks on the vic­tim were a match with Mr. Krone. 

When DNA test­ing was final­ly under­tak­en in 2002, it found that the sali­va and blood belonged to Kenneth Phillips, who was in prison at the time for an unre­lat­ed crime. Mr. Phillips lived near the crime scene and had nev­er been a sus­pect in the killing. Mr. Krone was released from prison in April 2002 and all charges against him were dropped. According to the Innocence Project, Mr. Krone had ​“no pre­vi­ous crim­i­nal record, had been hon­or­ably dis­charged from the mil­i­tary, and had worked in the postal ser­vice for sev­en years.” According to The Exoneration Registry, Mr. Phillips pled guilty to the mur­der in 2006 and was sen­tenced to 53 years in prison. As a result of a law­suit filed after his release, Mr. Krone was award­ed $3 mil­lion by the City of Phoenix and $1.4 mil­lion by Maricopa County. 

A December 2024 report by the Wilson Center for Science and Justice notes 39 states have enact­ed com­pen­sa­tion statutes for the wrong­ful­ly con­vict­ed, in addi­tion to Washington D.C. and the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment. According to research by the Exoneration Registry, some states have had some form of com­pen­sa­tion statute on the books for over a cen­tu­ry: the laws in California and Wisconsin both date to 1913. Twenty-four states have adopt­ed com­pen­sa­tion statutes since 2000, most recent­ly in Oregon in 2022. Among the eleven states² with­out com­pen­sa­tion statutes, four states have leg­is­la­tion pend­ing besides Arizona (Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Arkansas, and South Carolina) accord­ing to the Wilson Center. 

The com­pen­sa­tion that indi­vid­u­als may receive as a result of being wrong­ful­ly con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death rep­re­sent are anoth­er set of costs asso­ci­at­ed with the use of the death penal­ty. According to the Exoneration Registry, in states with com­pen­sa­tion statutes, the aver­age com­pen­sa­tion per exoneree is $838,106. This amount is rough­ly in line with the amount award­ed to Kirk Bloodsworth in 2021, 28 years after his exon­er­a­tion¾the first exoneree from death row based on DNA evi­dence. Mr. Bloodsworth was con­vict­ed in 1984 of rape and mur­der, but DNA test­ing con­duct­ed in 1993 exclud­ed him as the per­pe­tra­tor and iden­ti­fied anoth­er man, who was lat­er con­vict­ed of the crime. Mr. Bloodsworth was also the first per­son to receive sup­ple­men­tal com­pen­sa­tion under Maryland’s wrong­ful impris­on­ment statute. Under Maryland’s law com­pen­sa­tion pay­ments are autho­rized for each year of wrong­ful incar­cer­a­tion at a rate equal to the aver­age of the state’s annu­al medi­an income, as cal­cu­lat­ed over the pre­ced­ing five years: Mr. Bloodsworth’s com­pen­sa­tion was cal­cu­lat­ed at $721,237.40.