Florida legislators seek to ‘do it well’ to unjustly imprison

Tallahassee – Robert Duboise spent 37 years after bars, including three years in the death corridor, before his exemption in 2020 in the rape and murder of a Tampa woman.

Duboise was 18 when he was arrested and was 55 years old when he was released from the prison after the office of the state of the state of Hillsborough County concluded that his conviction for the crimes of 1983 should be unoccupied.

The Florida Legislature in 2008 approved a law, defended by the late prosecutor and president of the State University of Florida Sandy d’Aleembre, who said that the State should compensate for people who were unjustly convicted of crimes, provided they had not committed previously serious crimes. According to the law, the exoneses found innocent by the court that the convicted are eligible for $ 50,000 for each year that served in prison. Compensation has a $ 2 million limit.

Duboise, who maintained his innocence throughout his terrible experience of a decades, was not eligible for compensation because, 17 years, he had been convicted of three unrelated serious crimes. He and his lawyers and lobbyists pro bono spent three years trying to convince Florida legislators to approve a special type of legislation known as a bill of “claim” to provide $ 1.85 million to Duboise. The legislators signed it in 2023.

Florida is the only state with an unfair imprisonment compensation program that excludes people with previous serious crimes, a restriction that makes the vast majority of exemptions in the state not eligible for payments. According to the National Registry of Exemptions, 91 people in Florida have been exempted since 1989. Five of those exempt have received compensation.

The Traci Koster representative, a Tampa Republican, is among the legislators who have tried to change the law to eliminate what is known as the disposition of “clean hands”.

Koster, which sponsors a bill for the legislative session that will begin on Tuesday, said Duboise’s situation as the impulse for his interest in making the change.

“One of the first meetings that I took as an elected official was with one of these people wrongly imprisoned. And I was surprised by the level of grace that this gentleman had for our state, ”said Koster, a lawyer who was initially elected in 2020, before the Criminal Justice Subcommittee unanimously approved the proposal (HB 59) last week.

Koster told the Chamber Panel that changing the law would help 18 exempts “who have denied compensation due to our barriers too restrictive.”

“This totals approximately 300 years of unfair imprisonment. Six of these exoneses have waited more than a decade to obtain justice, ”he said, adding that the total compensation cost for all men would be approximately $ 15 million. “And as I said during the last four years that I presented this bill, when we, as a state, we are wrong and imprisoned someone, take away their freedom, then we, as a state, need to do it well.”

The bill would also be extended from 90 days to two years per date for the exoneses to seek compensation from the State and establish a process for people who receive compensation to pay the State if they receive a civil agreement.

Duboise, 60, advocates for change.

The current law “is basically putting a goal in anyone who has been convicted of something in his life,” he told The News Service of Florida in an interview.

The story of an exonerate “should be irrelevant if they know they condemned the wrong person,” Duboise said.

People who are exonerated, like other ex-imm amates, face innumerable challenges after being released from prison. Duboise, who was released in the midst of the Coronavirus pandemic, said it was a challenge for him to open a bank account because he lacked identification.

“I didn’t know how to use a phone or anything,” he said.

The innocence project of Florida’s executive director, Seth Miller, whose organization was fundamental to help Duboise’s condemnation revolve and defended the 2008 law, he told the news service that state payments can help relieve the transition of exoneses to communities.

“Our collective objective with all these men and women is to try to take them to a place of stability in all aspects of their lives. Everyone knows how financial stability is the key to everything else, ”he said.

Senator Jennifer Bradley, a Republican Republican of Fleming Island that sponsors the version of the Senate of the bill (SB 130), said that “standardizes” compensation for the exemptions and saves them having to pursue a draft law of claim of the legislature. The special magistrates carry out exhaustive investigations of the claims law, which then have to overcome the legislative process.

“These people are obviously behind the eight ball. They have no money. They have no savings. They have lost the ability to save for retirement, have homes and build a life support. Then, they are already starting at a quite large disadvantage, “Bradley said, a lawyer, to The News Service.

Duboise’s claim bill took three years to approve. He said the legislators approved it “was very special to me.”

“I met them all once or another, and we met. They were all horrified by what happened to me. His apology mattered, ”Duboise recalled. “They were thinking that this could have happened to my son. It seemed real. “

Duboise said the money allowed him to help his sister, who has autistic children and his mother, things he always planned to do, but it took much longer to achieve it.

“It simply helps many people, but also I work every day, right?” Duboise said, who is a maintenance manager for a field club in Oldsmar. “I have been since I was 18. I never learned to have fun. So, all these things that people want to do every day, I’m fine working and doing mine. “

Koster acknowledged that his proposal has not obtained enough support in the past, but continued in the hope that the legislature would sign this year.

“All I am doing is to open a door that barely cracks for these people and I’m just trying to open it a little more. And since I was chosen, it has been my mission to carry this on the finish line, ”he said.