More than 2,800 people to date have been wrongfully convicted of crimes in the United States, according to the National Registry of Exonerations. Now federal lawmakers are pushing to increase the federal statute for compensating exonerees.
"I was 48 when I got out. It was rough," said White, who's now 61."If it hadn't been for my family and the people who donated their time to help me, I just don't know. ... A lot of things were difficult, and the state of Georgia did nothing to help me." White, who wrongly served more than two decades behind bars, was exonerated in 2007 after the Georgia Innocence Project stepped in and had the hair samples that helped lead to his conviction retested.
Jane Roh, the communications director for Krasner's office, told CNN in a statement that"it is simply a matter of fairness that when the criminal justice system gets it wrong and a person loses their freedom due to police and/or prosecutorial misconduct, that an effort to repair the harm caused is made. Compensation for wrongfully incarcerated and convicted individuals is more than an obligation of justice; it is another tool by which the public may hold elected officials accountable.