In April 2000, 23-year-old Floyd Bledsoe sat in an Oskaloosa, Kansas, courtroom awaiting the verdict in his first-degree murder trial in the death of his 14-year-old sister-in-law, Zetta “Camille” Arfmann. Throughout the trial, he maintained his innocence. But the jury entered the courtroom and declared him guilty.

Bledsoe was sentenced to life in prison plus 16 years, but doubts about his involvement in the murder lingered. The crime scene yielded little physical evidence, and Bledsoe’s brother, Tom, 25, had originally confessed to the murder before recanting and pinning the crime on Floyd.

After years of fruitless court challenges, Bledsoe was vindicated in a gut-wrenching twist: In 2015, Tom Bledsoe confessed to the murder in a suicide note before asphyxiating himself. Within a month, a judge vacated Bledsoe’s conviction and he was released from prison. The day of his release, Bledsoe recalls, was a mixture of celebration and mourning. 

“Before I was locked up, I had 40 acres, livestock, a wife and kids,” he said. “When I was released, I had nothing … I lost my family, my job, my reputation — everything.”

Bledsoe found little support as he adjusted to life outside of prison, including from the state that locked him up for more than 15 years. A bill before the Kansas Legislature would make up for part of that by making him eligible for $80,000 for each year he spent behind bars.

A steady increase in exonerations in recent years, often a result of new DNA-testing capability, has prompted lawmakers in states like Kansas to consider legislation that guarantees compensation for those who are wrongfully convicted and imprisoned. And in the 32 states that have compensation laws, some lawmakers have sought to increase the amount of compensation exonerated individuals would receive, expand the eligibility for compensation or streamline the process for getting it.

It’s only just that states provide compensation to people who are wrongly convicted and imprisoned, advocates for the wrongly convicted say.

“When an innocent person is deprived of liberty because of a wrongful conviction, regardless of fault, the government has a responsibility to do all it can to foster that person’s re-entry in order to help restore some sense of justice,” said Maddy deLone, executive director of the Innocence Project, a nonprofit legal organization that specializes in wrongful conviction cases. “Fair compensation is part of that.”

According to the National Registry of Exonerations, 2,000 wrongfully convicted individuals have been exonerated for state and federal crimes since 1989. In 2016, there were 166 exonerations nationwide — the most since the registry was established nearly 30 years ago.

In 2004, Congress passed the Justice for All Act with bipartisan support. The law guarantees individuals exonerated of federal crimes $50,000 for every year spent in prison and $100,000 for every year spent on death row.

From state to state, however, those who are exonerated are not guaranteed the same rights or compensation after a conviction is overturned. “It really matters where you’re convicted,” said Amol Sinha, state policy advocate at the Innocence Project.

In Texas, a state known for its tough-on-crime posture, the exonerated are paid $80,000 for every year spent in prison and are eligible for monthly annuity payments after release. The state’s generous compensation law has added up over time. In the last 25 years, Texas has paid over $93 million to wrongfully convicted individuals.

Wisconsin, on the other hand, pays $5,000 for every year spent in prison, capped at a maximum of $25,000. Some states offer in-kind benefits in addition to monetary compensation. Vermont, for example, provides health care coverage for 10 years after an exonerated individual is released from prison.

In states without compensation laws, like Kansas, those who are exonerated typically have to file a lawsuit to get compensation or convince legislatures to pass a special appropriation to pay them. Lawsuits can be time-consuming, costly and challenging to win. And winning compensation from a legislature isn’t guaranteed.

In Kansas, for example, a wrongfully convicted person currently must go to the Legislature’s Special Claims Against the State Committee and plead for compensation.