Ohio Court ​“Formally Vindicates” Death Row Exoneree 41 Years After Conviction, Opening the Door for Potentially 1 Million Dollars in Wrongful Conviction Compensation

On March 5, 2026, Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Christopher McDowell ​“for­mal­ly vin­di­cat­ed” death-sen­tenced exoneree Derrick Jamison, allow­ing him to seek mon­e­tary com­pen­sa­tion from the state for his wrong­ful incar­cer­a­tion 21 years after pros­e­cu­tors dropped charges. Mr. Jamison, who was sched­uled for exe­cu­tion six times while impris­oned, filed a law­suit seek­ing a for­mal dec­la­ra­tion of wrong­ful impris­on­ment in 2024. With this for­mal dec­la­ra­tion, he can now file a civ­il claim for mon­e­tary dam­ages with the Ohio Court of Claims for an amount that could poten­tial­ly com­pen­sate him with a mil­lion dol­lars or more for the decades he spent wrongfully incarcerated. 

Mr. Jamison was sen­tenced to death in 1985 for the killing of a bar­tender dur­ing a rob­bery. The orig­i­nal con­vic­tion was based in part on the tes­ti­mo­ny of Charles Howell, a co-defen­dant who received a less­er sen­tence in exchange for his tes­ti­mo­ny. In 2000, a fed­er­al judge over­turned Mr. Jamison’s con­vic­tion and ordered a new tri­al due to tri­al pros­e­cu­tors’ with­hold­ing of 35 pieces of key evi­dence, includ­ing crit­i­cal eye­wit­ness state­ments. The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit affirmed the rul­ing on May 23, 2002. State pros­e­cu­tors decid­ed not to pro­ceed with a retri­al, and on February 28, 2005, Ohio Common Pleas Judge Richard Niehaus dis­missed all charges. 

During his 20 years of wrong­ful impris­on­ment, Mr. Jamison received six death war­rants and once came with­in 90 min­utes of exe­cu­tion. He told reporters after the March 5, 2026 deci­sion in his case: ​“They came to kill me six times. Can you imag­ine one time? They came to kill me six times for some­thing I didn’t do.” Since his exon­er­a­tion, Mr. Jamison has become an advo­cate for the abo­li­tion of the death penal­ty and works with Witness to Innocence as a peer nav­i­ga­tor, help­ing fel­low death-sen­tenced exonerees nav­i­gate life after leaving prison. 

Ohio has a two-step process for exonerees who apply for com­pen­sa­tion. The Court of Common Pleas must first issue a for­mal dec­la­ra­tion of wrong­ful con­vic­tion, and then an indi­vid­ual is per­mit­ted to file a claim for mon­e­tary dam­ages in the Court of Claims. The total sum of mon­ey in dam­ages includes: 1) fines, court costs, or legal fees asso­ci­at­ed with the crim­i­nal pro­ceed­ing and appeals; 2) a rate deter­mined by the state audi­tor for each full year of impris­on­ment and pro­rat­ed for par­tial years — for 2025 – 26 the rate was $68,808.38, equal­ing near­ly $1.38 mil­lion dol­lars for 20 years of wrong­ful incar­cer­a­tion; 3) any loss of wages or earned income; and 4) cer­tain debts the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction recov­ered from the wrong­ful­ly incar­cer­at­ed per­son. In 2018, Ohio’s wrong­ful com­pen­sa­tion law was amend­ed to include exonerees with con­vic­tions over­turned based on the state with­hold­ing key evi­dence, a Constitutional vio­la­tion, if the state does not seek a retri­al with­in one year. 

A January 2024 arti­cle from the Ohio Capital Journal reports that Ohio has pro­vid­ed the third high­est amount of com­pen­sa­tion of any state, behind New York and Texas, with near­ly $51 mil­lion dol­lars in com­pen­sa­tion paid to peo­ple exon­er­at­ed for crimes since 1989. When cal­cu­lat­ed per capi­ta, Ohio drops to sixth place. Every study com­plet­ed on the ques­tion of cost has shown that the death penal­ty is much more expen­sive than incar­cer­at­ing a pris­on­er for the rest of his nat­ur­al life in prison. Wrongful con­vic­tion com­pen­sa­tion is one of the death penalty’s many ​“hid­den costs.”