The law of Florida's “Clean Hands” is faced with the victim of the relief after reviewing the review

Tallahasee, Florida – Robert Duboise spent 37 years behind bars, including three years in the death cell, before his discharge in 2020 in rape and murder of a Tampa woman.

Duboise turned 18 when he was arrested and 55 years old when he was released from prison after the public prosecutor's office of the Hillsborough district left his conviction for the 1983 crimes.

The legislature of Florida in 2008 passed a law that was used by the deceased lawyer and Florida State University President Sandy D'Alemberte and said that the state was supposed to compensate people who were incorrectly condemned by crimes – as long as they did not commit any crimes beforehand had. According to the law, Exonerees, which she convicted, was entitled to $ 50,000 for $ 50,000 every year in which they served in prison. The compensation is limited to 2 million US dollars.

Duboise, who maintained his innocence during his decades-long ordeal, was not entitled to compensate because he was convicted of three crimes that had not been related to three. He and his Pro -Bono lawyers and lobbyists tried three years to convince Florida's legislators to approve a special kind of laws that provides $ 1.85 million US dollars as “claims” law. The legislature completed it in 2023.

Florida is the only state with an illegal detainees that excludes people with previous crimes, a restriction that the vast majority of exonere in the state does not entitle to payments. According to the national register of relief, 91 people have been relieved in Florida since 1989. Five of these exonerees have received compensation.

Rep. Traci Koster, R-TAMPA, is one of the legislators who have tried to change the law in order to eliminate the provision known as “clean hands”.

Koster, who sponsors such a legislative period for the legislative period, which will begin on Tuesday, instructed Duboise's forced position as an impetus for her interest in the change.

“One of the first meetings that I did as the chosen civil servant was with one of these incorrectly imprisoned people. And I was overwhelmed by the grace that this gentleman had for our state, ”said Koster, a lawyer who was originally elected in 2020 before the sub -committee of the House of Representatives unanimously the proposal last week (HB 59).

Koster informed the House Panel that the change in law would help 18 exonere to “be refused to compensate due to our excessive restrictive barriers”.

“This evaluates about 300 years of illegal detention. Six of these exonerees have waited over a decade to maintain justice, ”she said, adding that the total cost of compensation for all men would be approximately 15 million US dollars. “And as I have said in the past four years that I submitted this bill, if we as a state do it wrong and arrest someone, we take away their freedom, then as a state we have to do it right.”

The legislation would also extend from 90 days to two years, a deadline for exonerees to apply for compensation from the state and to set up a procedure for people who receive compensation to repay the state if they receive civil settlement.

The 60 -year -old dubo is committed to the change.

The current law “basically sets a goal on everyone that was convicted of anything in their life,” he told Florida in an interview.

The story of an exonere “should be irrelevant if you know that you have convicted the wrong person,” said Duboise.

Like other ex-Inmates, people who are relieved are countless challenges after being released from prison. Duboise, which was released in the middle of the Coronavirus pandemic, said it was a challenge for him to open a bank account because he had no identification.

“I didn't know how to use a phone or something else,” he said.

The Innocence Project of the Executive Director of Florida, Seth Miller, whose organization was largely contributed to lifting the condemnation of Duboise, and which was committed to the law of 2008, the intelligence service informed that the state payments could contribute to the transition from To reduce exonerees into the communities.

“Our collective goal with all these men and women is to bring 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 fleming Island who sponsors the Senate version of the draft law (SB 130), said it standardized compensation for exonerees and saved her to pursue a law on the legislature. Special judges carry out thorough examinations of damage calculations, which then have to get through the legislative procedure.

“These people are obviously behind the eight ball. They have no money. You have no savings. You have lost the ability to save on retirement, to have living space and to build life. So you are already starting a fairly large disadvantage, ”Bradley, a lawyer, told The News Service.

Duboise's claim took three years to pass. He said that legislators who agree to it was “something very special for me”.

“I met them all of them or another and we somehow got to know each other. All of them were horrified by what had happened to me. Your apology was important, ”Dubboise recalled. “They thought this could have happened to my child. It seemed real. “

Duboise said the money made it possible for him to help his sister who has autistic children, and his mother – things he always intended, but it took much longer to reach.

“I only help many people, but I also work every day every day, right?” Said Duboise, who is a maintenance manager for a Country Club in Oldsmar. “I've been gone since I was 18 years old. I never learned to have fun. So all these things that people want to do every day, I only work in order and do my thing. “

Koster admitted that her proposal in the past was not sufficiently supported, but it remained confident that the legislator will be signed this year.

“All I do is to open a door that is hardly cracked for these people, and I'm just trying to open it a little wider. And since I was chosen, it has been my mission to bring this across the finish line, ”she said.