Is an apology enough?

OMAHA -- Three people cleared in the 1985 rape and murder of a Beatrice woman have lost nearly 20 years of their lives to the state’s prison system.

They face a challenging road as they re-enter society. They’ll need to find jobs and a place to live, find financial stability and fight people’s negative perceptions about ex-cons -- even those who were mistakenly imprisoned.

And in Nebraska, they’ll likely do so without the state’s financial help.

In some states, exonerated inmates are entitled to government compensation, but there’s no such law in Nebraska, leaving these three to make it on their own.

Heather Weigand of the Life After Exoneration Program, which helps the wrongfully convicted rebuild their lives, said there’s evidence that exonorees experience the same trauma as torture victims and war veterans.

“They’re victims that we then re-victimize by not having services available. It’s a very disheartening situation,” she said. “We have to right the wrongs, and the government has really failed.”

Twenty-five states and the District of Columbia have compensation laws, according to The Innocence Project, which represents inmates fighting to have their convictions overturned.

In Louisiana, exonerated inmates can get $15,000 for each year of incarceration, with a $150,000 cap. California allows $100 per day in compensation.

Some state laws also provide compensation for lost wages and offer tuition waivers.

“I think that in the appropriate case, that’s exactly what should happen,” said Jerry Soucie, who works with the Nebraska Commission on Public Advocacy. “However, we don’t have such a law on our books right now.”

Soucie represents Thomas Winslow, who was cleared this fall in the 1985 death of Helen Wilson. He said state lawmakers should consider passing a law to compensate the wrongfully convicted.

But so far, a measure to bring compensation to Nebraska doesn’t appear to have much support among lawmakers.

An aide in state Sen. Brad Ashford’s office said there’s been no indication that legislation to compensate exonorees would be introduced in the session starting Jan. 7. Ashford, of Omaha, heads the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee, which would have to take up such legislation.

In states without compensation programs, some inmates sue and are awarded millions of dollars.

Doug Stratton, an attorney for Joseph White, who was also exonerated in the Wilson murder, said he’ll soon be contacting all six people who were wrongfully convicted in the case to see if there’s interest in a lawsuit.

The Wilson case was the first time in Nebraska history that inmates have been freed based on DNA evidence.

Last week, Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning said DNA evidence conclusively links Bruce Allen Smith of Oklahoma to Wilson’s rape and murder.

Smith was among the original suspects in the case, but evidence tested as part of the original investigation appeared to exclude him as a suspect. Newer DNA tests performed recently showed that the earlier test result was flawed.

Smith died of AIDS in 1992. He was 30.

Winslow, Wilson and Ada JoAnn Taylor have been freed because of the DNA evidence and three more were released in 1994, after the completion of their sentences.

Bruning has said he will pursue full pardons for all six.

Since post-conviction DNA testing was first allowed in 1989, 223 people have been exonerated by the results, according to the latest figures from the Innocence Project, which do not include the six Nebraskans who were cleared in the Wilson case. Seventeen of those people had been serving time on death row.

Most states, including Nebraska, have laws that allow for the testing.

Eric Ferrero of The Innocence Project said compensation for wrongful convictions is needed because re-entering society after serving prison time is difficult, even with an exoneration.

“Some people don’t have family support or any network of supports when they get out,” he said. “They often get out with no money, no job experience -- other than prison jobs -- and they often lack the skills to get reintegrated into society and rebuild their lives.”