Bill Tries to Right a 16-Year Wrong

What are 16 years of an innocent man’s life worth? And if the state acted responsibly in convicting him, should taxpayers foot the bill anyway?

Both questions are being put to state lawmakers this week on behalf of a former Tustin resident, Kevin Lee Green, in the form of an unprecedented bill in the Legislature. The measure seeks to give Green $770,000.

Green was imprisoned for 16 years and three months before DNA tests proved he was not guilty of the rape and attempted murder of his pregnant wife and the murder of their daughter, who was stillborn after the attack.

An Orange County judge proclaimed Green innocent in June 1996, and another man later confessed to the attack and was convicted.

That left Green free--and penniless.

A wrongly convicted person usually sues for a substantial sum of money from whoever is held responsible for the miscarriage of justice.

But Green has no such prospects. His conviction was not the product of shoddy police work, bad legal advice or prosecutorial misconduct. Green’s then-wife, who suffered a head injury and memory loss from the 1979 bludgeoning, identified him as her attacker. The jury believed her.

After being freed, Green, now 40, was left with an apology from the court and the prosecutor and later received $10,000 from the state--the maximum available under a 58-year-old law to compensate those wrongly convicted.

“I’m happy to be free,” Green said in a telephone interview from his home in Jefferson City, Mo. “All I prayed for all those years was to get my life back--the good and the bad.”

That’s not enough, says Assemblyman Scott Baugh (R-Huntington Beach), who is sponsoring the bill, which would compensate Green for his years in San Quentin and Soledad.

“When the system fails on that level, it’s society’s duty to do something about the situation,” Baugh said.

The lawmaker calculated the amount at the $100-a-day rate the Department of Corrections pays when it is unable to release a prisoner on the appropriate date--plus enough extra to pay federal income tax on the award.

Though there have been several similar cases in other states, none of the legislative staff members who analyzed the bill could find another like it in California.

Baugh’s bill passed its first hurdle last week in the Assembly Public Safety Committee. It won strong support from Democrats who control the Assembly, so its prospects for success are promising.

Republicans endorse the concept too.

“If the state wrongfully imprisons someone, the state has an obligation to make them whole,” said Assemblyman Tom McClintock (R-Northridge.)

Even taxpayer watchdog groups aren’t upset. A spokesman for the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn. said wrongful imprisonment is a form of government abuse, which is what his organization opposes.