SOME JUSTICE FOR DEDGE AT LAST

But cold comfort for other innocents in Florida

Gov. Jeb Bush did a gracious thing Wednesday. He flew to Brevard County to apologize on behalf of the state to a man who spent half his life behind bars for a rape he didn't commit. While he was there, Bush signed a bill granting Wilton Dedge $2 million in compensation. It's not enough. No dollar figure can be assigned to the agony of Dedge's parents, who never lost faith in his innocence. There's no way to pay Dedge for the wife and family he never had. Money can't erase the trauma of 22 years in the correctional system. But the state owes Dedge a chance to heal, a chance to build a new life to replace the one taken from him. Money helps accomplish that.

The Legislature authorized the payment in this month's special session after it stalled in the regular spring session. In historic terms, lawmakers acted quickly: Dedge's conviction was overturned in 2004. His case contrasts favorably with the pitiful history of Freddie Pitts and Wilbert Lee, who were beaten into confessing the murders of two gas-station attendants in 1963. After seeing convincing evidence that the men were innocent, Gov. Reubin Askew pardoned them in 1977. But it took 19 tries for the Legislature to approve compensation. In 1998, the two men received a miserly $500,000 apiece for their time on Death Row.

Forcing innocent men wronged by the state to go begging to the Legislature is wrong. The Dedge case proves the need for protocols that take politics out of the process of compensation. The contrast between Dedge's case and that of Pitts and Lee proves the need for a uniform system. Most states that have compensation programs for innocent prisoners start with a set amount of money per year -- Alabama sets a minimum $50,000 per year sum, for example, while Ohio sets a $40,050 per year sum that can be increased to cover lost wages. New York calls for "fair and reasonable damages" but sets no cap. Florida would be best served by a system that sets a minimum payment for each year behind bars but allows additional compensation for lost wages or other factors, says Jennifer Greenberg of Florida's Innocence Initiative. Payments should be increased in cases where prosecutors or police are proven to have lied or obstructed justice to obstain a conviction. Instead of taking these petitions to the Legislature, the state should have an independent panel or judge making determinations about fair compensation.

Dedge's case has other lessons for state officials. He's still struggling to have his record expunged of the rape he didn't commit. Florida should follow Tennessee's lead, and make expungement automatic when a conviction is overturned.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Dan Webster filed a bill for this year's session that would have created a compensation system, and versions of it passed both House and Senate. The final version of the legislation fell short of the mark in some ways -- for example, it denied compensation to people who plead guilty, even if scientific evidence proves they're innocent. It also would have barred compensation to people who have criminal records outside the wrongful conviction -- even if the crime was a minor felony. The proposed legislation would have restricted payments for pain and suffering, cold comfort to innocent people raped or assaulted while in prison.

The Legislature did well to compensate Dedge. Now it should look for ways to enshrine that fairness in state law, and protect the wrongfully accused from seeing justice swept away by politics.

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