COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Critics of fast-moving legislation to expand Ohio's wrongful imprisonment compensation law say taxpayers could be on the hook for millions in payments to ex-inmates who actually committed crimes.

House Bill 411 and Senate Bill 248 would allow wrongful imprisonment payouts in cases where attorneys or police withheld evidence that could have helped the defendant prove innocence in court. Supporters say the legislature already expanded the benefit to appeals won on "procedural errors," but the Ohio Supreme Court has misinterpreted the law.

County prosecutors say the proposed changes would make the wrongful conviction statute the most liberal in the country at a hefty cost to taxpayers -- upwards of $15 million by one estimate.

Rep. Bill Seitz, a Cincinnati Republican and one of the bill's sponsors, said the government should pay up for violating a defendant's constitutional rights.

"I shake my head at the idea that, 'oh, well this is money for criminals,'" Seitz said. "They're only criminals because the government failed its constitutional duty."

The bipartisan proposal was first introduced as a state budget bill amendment last year but was pulled at the last minute at the objections of the Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association and Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine. The bill's scope has been narrowed, but not enough to appease prosecutors and DeWine, who is now running to be the Republican nominee in November's gubernatorial election.

"I still have concerns with awarding taxpayer dollars to individuals who have not proven actual innocence. Unfortunately, that is exactly what this bill proposes to do," DeWine wrote in a letter sent last week to House Speaker Cliff Rosenberger. "If this legislation is enacted in its current form, Ohio's wrongful imprisonment statute, which already is the most liberal in the country, would become even broader and more expansive."

The House bill cleared committee in March and could receive a floor vote when legislators return to the Statehouse next week.

What would the bills do?

The legislation would make it easier for ex-inmates to receive wrongful imprisonment compensation in two ways.

It eliminates the requirement that the prosecutor agree not to re-file charges against the ex-inmate, It allows compensation claims when a court has found an individual's due process rights were violated because evidence was withheld that could have helped the person's case, also called a Brady Rule violation.

The amount of compensation would be offset by civil lawsuit or federal lawsuit awards. The bill also gives prosecutors one year to reinstitute charges against the ex-inmate, which could be shorter than the statute of limitation for the crime.

Seitz said the General Assembly intended to expand compensation claims for appeals due to procedural errors with a 2003 law he sponsored. But in 2014, the Ohio Supreme Court interpreted that law to mean the error had to happen after sentencing, which is rare, not before or during a trial.

"Put yourself in their shoes -- you would be outraged if you were wrongfully convicted and you languished away in a crappy prison cell for any appreciable period of time and once you were freed they just give you your hat and a bus ticket and send you on your merry way," Seitz said.

The bill has the support of the Ohio Public Defender and the Ohio Innocence Project, which works to exonerate wrongfully convicted individuals.

Michelle Feldman, legislative strategist for the national Innocence Project, said Ohio's wrongful imprisonment law is far from the nation's most liberal and the proposed changes tighten the "procedural error" criteria from the 2003 law.

"If anything this is a much more conservative version of the current law and protects taxpayers in the way the current law doesn't," Feldman said.

The 2014 Supreme Court case, Mansaray v. State of Ohio, would still be ineligible for compensation under the proposed changes, she said.

"People who are getting their convictions overturned on technicalities will not be eligible under this bill," Feldman said.

What do opponents say?

The prosecutors' association was neutral on the bill but reversed its position in recent weeks due to several concerns from county prosecutors about compensating people who commit crimes but are later freed on appeal.

"Prosecutors would unanimously agree that someone who is actually innocent of a crime and imprisoned is entitled to some kind of compensation," association president and Defiance County Prosecutor Morris Murray said. "Our concern is the way this has been proposed continues to leave the door open to a lot of wrongful compensation."

Brian Gutkoski, a Cuyahoga County assistant prosecutor who represented Ohio in the Mansaray case, said lawmakers should take a step back and examine the entire law, which has been amended several times since enacted in 1986.

"Before we authorize a whole new class of people and avenue by which they can get compensated and make that avenue the only state in the nation that can do that, we need to make sure everyone has an understanding of the ramifications of that change," Gutkoski said.

What would it cost?

Wrongful imprisonment payouts are rare. Compensation is currently $52,625 for each year of wrongful incarceration, plus attorneys' fees, loss of wages and other expenses.

The nonpartisan Legislative Service Commission couldn't put a price tag on the bill. But Gutkoski estimated the original version of the bill that applied to all "procedural errors" would cost the state at least $15 million. He said that's likely high, given changes made to the bill, but it will certainly cost the state millions of dollars.

Seitz disputed that estimate, noting that payouts didn't skyrocket during the 11 years from when the law passed to the Supreme Court's decision. (Prosecutors say that's because the procedural error language was assumed to apply only to errors after sentencing, as the Supreme Court concluded.)

If prosecutors think there will be that many payouts, Seitz said, then perhaps they need to go back to school to better study the Constitution.

Since 2010, 20 individuals have filed claims for compensation. Individual awards have ranged between $40,000 and $3.7 million with an average award of $1.1 million per individual.

The state paid out $4.1 million last year to exonerees and nearly $8.4 million in 2016.