The Senate Judiciary Committee has been hearing testimony on a proposed bill that would compensate wrongfully convicted people in Kansas. Under the proposal wrongfully convicted and exonerated people would receive $80,000 for each year served in prison and an additional $1 million if they were on death row. Former inmate Floyd Bledsoe served sixteen years in Kansas for a murder that evidence later showed he did not commit. He told the committee that many people are unaware that Kansas currently offers no compensation for wrongful conviction.
Bledsoe said that he walked out of prison with no money, no resume and no employment history for the past sixteen years. He said he hopes no one else will have to face a similar fate with no resources. Bledsoe is now employed, married and living in Hutchinson. Under the proposal, an exonerated person would need to file for compensation within two years of being released.
