COLDSPRING, Tex. — Megan Winfrey’s first Mother’s Day after being released from prison was a sweet mess. Her 7-year-old daughter, Danielle, served her breakfast in bed, leaving behind a colorful trail of cereal from the kitchen of her trailer home in this tiny East Texas town.

“There was cereal everywhere, but it was sweet,” Ms. Winfrey said with her drawl and a giggle. “And I love Fruity Pebbles, so I ate it.” Ms. Winfrey, 25, had been behind bars since 2007, after she, her father, Richard Winfrey, and her brother, Richard Winfrey Jr., were charged in the 2004 stabbing and beating death of Murray Burr, a school janitor here.

In February, Texas’ highest criminal court acquitted Ms. Winfrey, ruling that the dog scent evidence prosecutors used against her was insufficient. Now, she faces the challenge of starting a life as a single parent. She has had no job training, and has a capital murder conviction on her record. And because she was acquitted, but not declared “actually innocent” or pardoned, she is ineligible for compensation for the years she spent in prison.

Texas has the nation’s most generous compensation law for assisting those who are wrongly convicted, but only in cases where the exoneree has been pardoned or declared actually innocent. Some criminal justice advocates argue that the law should be expanded to account for situations like Ms. Winfrey’s. Others worry that broadening the law could lead to abuses.