Davis Signs Bill to Pay Convicts $100 a Day if Found Not Guilty

Gov. Gray Davis on Tuesday signed legislation inspired by several Orange County cases that would make people wrongfully imprisoned in California eligible for thousands of dollars in compensation.

Under the law, those convicted of crimes they didn’t commit could receive $100 for each day they spent behind bars. Previously, the state had a $10,000 cap on the amount of compensation one could receive.

The governor’s action comes after three high-profile cases in which convictions were overturned after verdicts came into question years later.

The Orange County district attorney’s office last week entered into an unusual partnership with the public defender to identify other cases in which people were erroneously convicted, going so far as to distribute questionnaires to prisoners across the state.

“I think there’s an increasing awareness and sensitivity in the community at large that mistakes are made and people need to be compensated,” said Public Defender Carl Holmes. “This recognition . . . is an incredible step in the right direction.”

Assemblyman Scott Baugh (R-Huntington Beach) authored the legislation, arguing that the state has a responsibility to compensate prisoners mistakenly convicted.

Last year, Baugh pushed through a different law that paid $620,000 to former Tustin resident Kevin Green, who served 17 years in prison after being wrongly convicted of attacking his wife and killing their unborn child.

Since then, a man who spent 19 years behind bars for allegedly murdering a fast-food restaurant manager during a hold up in Orange was freed after doubts about his guilt.

Under Baugh’s law, DeWayne McKinney would be eligible for more than $700,000 in compensation--if a judge declared him “factually innocent” of the crime.

So far, McKinney hasn’t sought such a declaration. But in a federal lawsuit filed in July, McKinney is seeking $10 million from the Orange police, who arrested him, and the county public defender’s office, which represented him at trial.

In another case, a Costa Mesa teenager convicted of robbing two businesses had his conviction overturned after a witness expressed doubts that he was the assailant. Arthur Carmona spent two years in jail but has not filed any lawsuits or claims for compensation.

Some officials said the law is important because it acknowledges the debt owed those wrongly convicted.

“It is hard to put a value on a man’s life day by day in any prison,” Holmes said. “But I am very encouraged.”