FRANKFORT, Ky. (LEX 18) — A new bill filed in the Kentucky legislature would create a fund to compensate people who are wrongly convicted and then exonerated.
House Bill 206, sponsored by Rep. Jason Nemes, was introduced in early January. If it becomes law, it would provide exonerees with $65,000 for each year they spent wrongfully in prison.
Additional funds would be provided if the person was on death row or spent time on parole.
According to the Kentucky Innocence Project, which is part of the Department of Public Advocacy, Kentucky is one of just 12 states that does not provide compensation to exonerees.
According to the National Registry of Exonerations at the University of Michigan, there have been 24 exonerations in Kentucky since 1989.
LEX 18 spoke with two of the people who have had their convictions reversed.
Michael VonAllmen
In 1983, Michael VonAllmen was convicted in a rape case and Louisville.
He spent over a decade in prison and left to serve parole as a registered sex offender.
Working with the Kentucky Innocence Project, VonAllmen was exonerated by a Jefferson County judge in 2010 after an attorney presented evidence that another man, who looked strikingly similar to him, was actually responsible.
After 27 years, VonAllmen's name was cleared.
"Life in prison makes you go to levels that you didn't know were part of the human existence," VonAllmen said.
VonAllmen described the exoneration as an "intoxicating mix of emotion".
"Now I've got a voice and I feel compelled to exercise it," he said.
After the judge declared that VonAllmen had been wrongly convicted, the retired plumber began advocating for criminal justice reform in Frankfort, including calling for the state to eliminate the death penalty.
While VonAllmen did not receive automatic compensation from the state, he's hoping H.B. 206 passes this legislative session.
"It shortens the process of some financial stability, some solid ground to start navigating the rest of your life with," he said.
Johnetta Carr

In 2019, the Kentucky Innocence Project helped Johnetta Carr obtain a pardon from former Governor Matt Bevin, arguing Carr was manipulated into pleading guilty to murder at just 16 years old.
She spent four years in prison, according to the Innocence Project.
"Most of the time, people like myself who are wrongfully convicted of crimes we didn't commit get less help reintegrating into society that people who are actually guilty of their crimes," Carr said.
Carr described some of the challenges exonerees can face long after being cleared of their convictions.
"You get denied on applications for certain housing, you get denied benefits. Some exonerees don't even know how to work technology," she said.
Carr said H.B. 206 could be an immense help to people like herself.
She plans to continue advocating for the bill as it moves through the legislature in Frankfort.