In 1988, Timothy Atkins was convicted of robbery and murder and sentenced to 32 years in prison by a Los Angeles Superior Court judge. Atkins spent 23 years behind bars before he was found innocent by the same judge who had sentenced him. With the help of three attorneys at the California Innocence Project at California Western School of Law, Atkins sought compensation from the state for his wrongful conviction. Under section 4900 of the California Penal Code, the state owes a statutory rate of $100 for each day spent in prison after a wrongful conviction. In Atkins’ case, this amounts to $713,100. However, the Victim Compensation and Government Claims Board in Sacramento has the power to determine who will and who will not get financially compensated for their wrongful conviction. On March 2010, the board rejected Atkins’ claim.
The compensation board determined that Atkins “failed to prove his innocence by a preponderance of the evidence.” Yet, this same evidence convinced the superior court judge to vacate Atkins’ conviction. Justin P. Brooks, project director of the California Innocence Project told California Lawyer magazine, “This is supposed to be about doing the right thing. But instead the board is just retrying these people, and in the end [the defendants] still don’t get any money.”
Advocates for the compensation board claim that within the past twelve years, the board has approved 11 cases for compensation of formerly incarcerated criminals. However, that is less than one-fifth of the 59 cases it has decided. Additionally, the compensation board is supposed to hear both witness testimony and arguments from lawyers. However, since 2000, over one-third of applicants sought compensation from the board without the benefit of legal counsel.
Linda Starr of the Northern California Innocence Project has represented multiple exonerees, both winning and losing, and is among those who view the process as blatantly unfair. Starr represented John Stoll, who served almost 20 years in prison for numerous accounts of child molestation until a judge vacated Stoll’s conviction based on unreliable testimony. Stoll was awarded $704,700 by the compensation board. However, when Starr’s client Kenneth Wayne Foley was found innocent after being wrongfully convicted for burglary, the compensation board denied his claim for compensation.
Despite the compensation board’s rejection of Timothy Atkins’ claim, he continues his fight for vindication from the board and has appealed the ruling. “I lost 23 years of my life for something I didn’t do. I didn’t give up while I was in prison. And I am most definitely not going to give up now.”
Read more here.
www.ncip.scu.edu
