At the Capitol

Those who are wrongfully convicted could get $50,000 to $100,000 for each year they spent in prison, plus reimbursement for other costs, under a bill passed overwhelmingly by the Minnesota House on Monday.

The bill, which awaits action in the Senate, would also pay $25,000 to $50,000 for each year spent on supervised release or as a registered offender.

Among the victims that bill sponsor John Lesch, DFL-St. Paul, singled out in his remarks to House colleagues was Lonsdale resident Michael Hansen.

Hansen was convicted in the death of his baby daughter and spent almost seven years in prison. With assistance from the Innocence Project of Minnesota, Hansen was able to show the girl’s death was accidental, and the charges were dismissed in 2011.

But while he was away he missed irreplaceable time with his other two daughters, now ages 15 and 13.

“I was with them every single day, and I got taken away from them just like that,” Hansen said Monday, after the House vote. “Anything and everything you can imagine, I missed out on.”

Hansen said the compensation amounts in the bill seem fair but can’t make up for what happened to him.

“Think of the worst possible thing that could ever happen to you. They could have killed me, and I would have been better off. I went to prison. My whole world turned. I changed,” he said.

The bill — which passed the House by a 121-2 vote — allows those exonerated to file claims with the state Supreme Court. The chief justice then appoints a three-member panel to determine damages.

On top of the compensation for time spent in prison and on supervised release, “the claimant is entitled to reimbursement for all restitution, assessments, fees, court costs and other sums paid by the claimant as required by the judgment and sentence,” the bill says. Among the factors to be considered include lost wages as well as health, educational, housing and transportation expenses.

“What happened to me could happen to anybody,” Hansen said.

“We don’t have a perfect system, and it will never be perfect. But this will help to make it better. So if there is somebody that’s found wrongfully incarcerated and they’re innocent, then they can be compensated, and the state can stand on their own two feet proudly and say that we made a mistake, and now we’re making up for it.”

Doug Belden can be reached at 651-228-5136. Follow him at twitter.com/dbeldenpipress.