[FADPUpdate] CALL TO ACTION! SB 756

[melliott3 at aol.com]

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CALL TO ACTION!

FLORIDA SENATE BILL # 756 WRONGFUL INCARCERATION COMPENSATION

Once again, the Florida Legislature is considering a bill to compensate 
innocent people who have been wrongfully imprisoned or sent to Death 
Row for crimes they did not commit.  This time, both Gov. Charlie Crist 
and Senate President Ken Pruitt strongly support a fair compensation 
bill and have made it's passage a priority, but the opposition has a 
catch.

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FOUR THINGS YOU CAN DO TODAY

1.  Write a letter, email or call your Florida legislators and tell 
them that you support SENATE BILL 756 - WRONGFUL INCARCERATION 
COMPENSATION.  This bill is sponsored by Sen. Arthenia Joyner - Tampa.  
It provides payment to the truly innocent and DISQUALIFIES VIOLENT 
CAREER CRIMINALS..

Please tell your representatives that you do NOT support language in 
bills like House Bill 1025 - Sponsored by Rep. Ellyn Bogdanos - Ft. 
Lauderdale, because it contains a "clean hands" provision that 
disqualifies ALL 9 Florida DNA exonerees and virtually all of the Death 
Row exonerees due to ANY prior felony record.

To find your reps: www.leg.state.fl.us

2.  Write a letter-to-the-editor to your local newpaper.

3.  Forward this alert to a friend (or five!) and ask them to help.

4.  Tell others about FADP and the FADP Update Newsletter.

http://www.fadp.org/esubscribe.html

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BACKGROUND

In Florida, we have exonerated 9 people after DNA evidence cleared 
them.  One man, Frank Lee Smith, died while on Death Row.  At least 22 
people have been exonerated off Florida's Death Row.  The average time 
spent on Death Row prior to exoneration is 8 years.  Florida leads the 
nation in sentencing innocent people to death.

Upon release from prison or Death Row, they get NOTHING from the 
state...only a bus ticket and the clothes on their back.  No 
counselling, no job training, no education, no medical care, no help or 
attempt at restitution.  With your help, FADP has provided some 
temporary assistance to Death Row exonerees upon release.

SB 756 WRONGFUL INCARCERATION COMPENSATION.   This Senate bill provides 
exonerated inmates $100,000 for every year of wrongful incarceration. 
The bill makes it clear that only those who were completely innocent of 
the offense and didn't aid others in its commission would qualify, and 
no one formerly designated a violent career criminal would qualify. The 
bill would also offer the wrongfully incarcerated free college tuition.

HB 1025 - Sponsored by Rep. Ellyn Bogdanos - Ft. Lauderdale.  This 
House bill contains a "poison pill" provision that would deny coverage 
to anyone who has a prior felony conviction.  People like Alan Crotzer, 
who spent 24 years in prison for a crime he did not commit, would get 
nothing because of a previous conviction for stealing a case of beer 
when he was 17 years old.  In fact, this exclusion would disqualify ALL 
9 Florida DNA exonerees.  It cleverly negates both the intent and the 
purpose of the bill...like the insurance policy that seems good until 
one reads the fine print and discovers that it pays nothing.

Florida has the duty and responsibility to aid the innocent people it 
wrongly convicted and punished for crimes they did not commit.  As 
Jennifer Greenberg of the Innocence Project of Florida states, "Let's 
hope the Legislature can agree on a fair method of treating these 
people equally and paying them expeditiously."

The State of Florida sends people to prison or executes them to make 
them "pay" for their mistakes.  In fairness, the state must also pay 
for its mistakes.  Where is justice?

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For press coverage of these bills:

http://www.fadp.org/news/20080120(2)/

http://www.fadp.org/news/2008022403/

For info on Florida's Death Row exonerees:

http://www.fadp.org/fl_exonerated.html

For more on Florida's DNA exonerations:

www.floridainnocence.org

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Shine the light,

Mark Elliott
Excutive Director
Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, FADP.org
mark at fadp.org

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that 
matter."
"Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal."
"The time is always right to do what is right."
Martin Luther King

Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty
2840 W. Bay Drive, #118
Belleair Bluffs, FL 33770-2620