LINCOLN -- His voice breaking, Joseph White told a legislative committee Thursday he lost 20 years of his son’s life while he was in prison for the murder of Helen Wilson.

“I can’t get back the time with him,” he said, holding up a photo of his son as a baby and another of him today at 21. “I can’t go back and teach my boy to ride a bicycle or drive a car.”

White, 46, moved home to Holly Pond, Ala., after his 1989 conviction was reversed by DNA testing that showed he did not rape Wilson in her Beatrice apartment in 1985.

Today, he said, he has no retirement, no equity in a home, no home, in fact, except the one provided by his parents.

“I have nothing except my pride in the fact that I never gave up on the truth, and proved my innocence.”

White and five others were arrested in 1989. He  was the only one to go to trial and was convicted of first-degree murder, largely through testimony by three of the five.

On Thursday, White and one of those people testified in favor of a bill (LB260) that would compensate them for what they lost.

Ada JoAnn Taylor also served nearly 20 years for the Wilson murder. She pleaded guilty and testified then that she saw White and Thomas Winslow rape Wilson.

After testing sought by White under the Nebraska DNA Testing Act proved Wilson was raped by an Oklahoma City man, Taylor said she had lied.

Before the Judiciary Committee heard testimony on the bill, White and Taylor met outside the hearing room -- for the first time since White’s trial.

The Army veteran from Alabama stood with his hands in the pockets of his blue jeans and talked with the North Carolina native he met 25 years ago when they were both young drifters in California.

Taylor wiped away tears as they spoke quietly.

“It was nice. I didn’t recognize him at first,” said Taylor, who recently married and is living in Bellevue.

“I don’t blame her for any of it,” White said. “I know she had problems at that time, and they (authorities) took advantage of them.”

Winslow also served nearly 20 years in prison. Debra Shelden, James Dean and Kathy Gonzalez served about five each. All five were granted full pardons last month.

The Nebraska Claims for Wrongful Conviction and Imprisonment Act, sponsored by Sen. Kent Rogert of Tekamah, would compensate innocent people who were wrongly convicted.

It would be retroactive to include the six people convicted in the Wilson case.

Scottsbluff attorney Steve Olsen spoke on behalf of the victim’s family, about a dozen of whom attended the hearing.

“For 20 years, this family has not had a voice. Now they do. They’ve been harmed as well,” Olsen said.

The family sat through graphic testimony at White’s trial from some of the people now seeking compensation, Olsen said.

“They chose to lie. They chose to tell stories.”

He said the system already provides relief through civil lawsuits.

But others, including representatives of the Nebraska Innocence Project, said civil redress is difficult at best, and urged the Legislature to join 25 states that have compensation laws for people who are wrongly convicted.

The Innocence Project flew White to Nebraska for Thursday’s hearing.

Wilson’s grandson, Shane Wilson of Scottsbluff, said his family supports the bill -- if the people who would benefit are indeed innocent.

“DNA only proves they didn’t rape her, not that they weren’t there. ... This bill will compensate them before they have to prove they were innocent.”

The committee took no action Thursday, but several senators expressed support.

“This is a very meaningful bill,” said Chairman Brad Ashford. “We need to do it for the state.”