If you are wrongfully convicted of a crime in Wisconsin and sent to prison, current state law sets the wrongful conviction compensation rate at $5,000 for each year you spend behind bars. But if it takes you more than five years to prove your innocence, then $25,000 is all you get.
That cap makes for the lowest compensation rate of any state in the country. But the Wisconsin Innocence Project is working on changing that.
The groupâ??s attorney, Keith Findley, theyâ??ll soon release a report advocating the boosting of the compensation rate. “It’s really woefully inadequate… it’s an insult to the people who’ve been through this,” he says. (4th item.)