AUSTIN, Texas -- Texas Gov. Rick Perry has signed a bill that increases the compensation paid to people who are wrongfully convicted and sent to prison for crimes they didn't commit.
The new law boosts lump sum payments from $50,000 to $80,000 for every year of confinement and grants an annuity to provide a lifetime of income.
Exonerees also would get 120 hours of paid tuition at a career center or public college.
The bill signing comes on the same day a 47-year-old man who spent more than two decades in prison was released. Jerry Lee Evans was convicted on faulty eyewitness testimony of the 1986 aggravated sexual assault of an 18-year-old freshman at Southern Methodist University.
© 2009 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
|
