YOU SPENT YEARS IN PRISON FOR A CRIME YOU DID NOT COMMIT. WHAT DOES THE STATE OWE YOU?

Audio, Text, and Photos by Phoebe Jones

Published May 24, 2021 by WWNO and WRKF (Louisiana’s local NPR stations in New Orleans and Baton Rouge)

https://crescenttocapitol.org/2021/05/24/wrongful-convictions-innocence-project-new-orleans/

“Peacocks are sacred birds, you know,” John Floyd tells me on a cool day in mid-February outside of his home in Ridgeland, Mississippi. We are seated next to a pond behind an unassuming apartment complex off a busy road. This isn’t the first time John interrupts himself to talk about animals.

John Floyd, now 71 years old, served 36.5 years at America’s largest maximum-security prison, the Louisiana State Penitentiary (better known as Angola), for a murder he did not commit. Innocence Project New Orleans took on Floyd’s case in 2001 and after years of uncovering evidence that had not been turned over in the initial case, Floyd was finally exonerated of the crime in 2018. 

Floyd now lives in his own space with a tiny dog named Maggie.

“I’m living that life now that I should have been living many years ago,” he said. “It’s peaceful around here. I got good neighbors. I’ve got my little friend, right here. She won’t leave my side.” 

But he might be in a very different place if he hadn’t been wrongfully imprisoned so many decades ago. 

Under Louisiana’s current law, exonerated people must apply for compensation from the state for wrongful imprisonment. The process may take years, and even if granted, wrongly convicted people receive only $25,000 a year with a cap of 10 years, and as of 2019, they will also get a one-time payment of $80,000. 

THE CURRENT FIGHT FOR COMPENSATION

The United States has the highest rate of incarceration in the world, just ahead of El Salvador and Rwanda, incarcerating, on average, 655 people per 100,000. Louisiana’s rate is higher than any other state in the U.S., with 680 per every 100,000 people locked up. In 2015, the state of Louisiana spent $622,350,856 on incarcerating people.

Between 1989 and April 2021, Louisiana exonerated 64 people, making up a total of 978.6 years of people’s lives lost to wrongful imprisonment. The population of Louisiana is 32 percent Black, yet 53 of the 64 exonerees — about 82 percent — are Black. Black people are incarcerated at a rate four times  as much white people. A 2017 study by the National Registry of Exonerations shows that you are seven times more likely to be wrongfully convicted of murder if you are Black.

Louisiana is one of 35 U.S. states that offers financial compensation for exonerated people, though the state offers the fourth lowest amount. Neighboring Mississippi provides $50,000 per year with a cap at 10 years, and the national average is even higher at $68,000 per year. Texas provides $80,000 per year of wrongful incarceration.

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