An Alabama legislative panel today certified that a deceased man’s family is eligible for compensation because he spent 12 years in prison on a criminal conviction that was overturned in a second trial.

The Committee on Compensation for Wrongful Incarceration made the decision based on a determination by the State Department of Finance Division of Risk Management that the application for Don W. Grimes met the criteria for compensation.

State law authorizes the committee to certify awards of $50,000 for each year a wrongly convicted person spends in prison.

Grimes was arrested for first-degree robbery in Henry County in 1984 and was convicted in 1987.

In 1996, the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama reversed the conviction, finding that African-Americans had been purposefully struck from the jury. The federal court ordered the state to release Grimes or hold a new trial.

Later that year, a Henry County jury found Grimes not guilty.

The Division of Risk Management determined that Grimes’ family is eligible for $602,604 based on the 12 years he was incarcerated. The committee certified the eligibility.

For payment to be made, lawmakers will have to place the appropriation in the state General Fund budget.

Rep. Steve Clouse, R-Ozark, chairman of the Committee on Compensation for Wrongful Incarceration and the House General Fund budget chairman, said he would recommend $50,000 in next year’s budget for Grimes’ family.

The budget already includes $50,000 in compensation for wrongful incarceration in three other cases – Antonio S. Williams, Joseph M. Littleton, and Beniah Dandridge.

Next year’s payments would be the third annual payments in the cases of Williams and Littleton and the second in the case of Dandridge.

Rep. Dexter Grimsley, D-Newville, who represents Henry County, said he had been in touch with Grimes’ family about the case.

Alabama and national politics.