Righting our wrongs

The following editorial appeared Monday in the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin.

The justice system is designed to punish the guilty and exonerate the innocent.

It usually works.

On rare occasions the system fails. Justice is not served. Innocent people are sometimes wrongly convicted of crimes and imprisoned.

It’s a tragedy. These people can never get back the months or years lost in a prison cell. Their emotional wounds will never fully heal.

Given that, does society have an obligation to compensate someone who is wrongfully imprisoned?

Rep. Joe McDermott, D-Seattle, believes it does, and he’s asking his fellow lawmakers to approve legislation that would mandate monetary compensation for those wrongfully punished.

McDermott’s proposal, which follows federal law, requires the state to award a wrongly convicted person no less than $50,000 for each year of imprisonment, including time spent awaiting trial. An additional $50,000 would be awarded for each year spent on death row.

“When you are imprisoned you lose everything,” McDermott said. “We should have the procedures in place to make someone who’s been wrongfully convicted whole, in some small part.”

Few would disagree. But there is debate over what is a fair settlement.

Sen. Mike Carrell, R-Lakewood, has concern over establishing a compensation policy with little or no discretion by a judge or jury.

He makes a good point. While imprisonment is never easy, the toll it takes depends on a variety of factors including the impact on a person’s employment, family and mental health. No compensation system will be perfect.

But it’s clear a system needs to be established that would allow the state to compensate people who are wrongfully convicted in a way that will help them get back on their feet and at least have a chance of trying to regain some of what was lost. While it is rare that someone is wrongly sent to prison, it does occur on occasion. And the number of cases around the nation are increasing. For example, DNA tests that can be done today were not available 20 years ago. This is changing investigations and making it clearer who is, and is not, guilty of crimes.

Given the increase in wrongful convictions, now is the time for the Legislature to establish a policy on compensation.

But it must be made clear that compensation should be awarded only to people who are convicted – not just charged – and went to prison for a crime they did not commit.

When mistakes in our justice occur, society has an obligation to take action to attempt to right those wrongs.