The impetus for the legislation: the case of Jeffrey Scott Hornoff, the detective and father who served six years, four months and 18 days for the 1989 murder of Victoria Cushman, to which another man belatedly confessed.

PROVIDENCE — State lawmakers are seeking to compensate the former Warwick cop who was convicted — and put in prison — for a murder he did not commit.



The House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday unanimously approved legislation to pay $50,000 a year out of the state treasury for each year spent in prison to: “innocent persons who have been wrongfully convicted of crimes [who through no fault of their own have been uniquely victimized, and are deserving of consideration and remuneration for this miscarriage of justice.”



The impetus for the legislation: the case of Jeffrey Scott Hornoff, the detective and father who served six years, four months and 18 days for the 1989 murder of Victoria Cushman, to which another man belatedly confessed.



Todd Barry, her sometime boyfriend and her killer, eventually confessed in 2002 and remains behind bars, serving 30 years.



It is unclear how many others might qualify who served time in prison, and then for any number of reasons, including “ineffective counsel,” or judicial error had their convictions “vacated,” “reversed” or “dismissed.” News stories have recounted other instances where a conviction was tossed. House spokesman Larry Berman said there may be at least three other cases, based on information provided by the Innocence Project.



Also unclear, in a vacuum of information: How much this compensation program might cost the state.



At a hearing on the legislation on March 10, Hornoff told lawmakers: “You might try to imagine a cop in prison...I was double-bunked with some of the most disgusting men you could imagine.”



If not for Barry’s confession, “I’d be there tonight,” Hornoff, now 56, told the lawmakers.



The lead sponsor — Rep. Patricia Serpa, D-West Warwick — told colleagues Rhode Island is one of only 17 states that does not compensate the wrongly convicted.



Victoria Cushman was killed in 1989.



That summer, Cushman was 29 and living alone in a one-bedroom apartment above the Alpine Ski/Sports complex in Warwick, where she worked. In July she met Hornoff, a married man, on the deck of the Coast Guard House, in Narragansett, and the two began a sexual relationship.



When Cushman failed to arrive at work on the morning of Aug. 11, an employee of Alpine went to her apartment and found her door at the top of the stairs ajar and her body lying in the living room near an open window. Investigators later determined she had been bludgeoned with a fire extinguisher and a jewelry box and likely strangled.



Police also found in Cushman’s apartment a letter she had written but not sent to Hornoff, wanting to continue the relationship. Police believed it provided Hornoff a motive for her killing.



Though Hornoff told a superior officer he knew Cushman, he initially lied about having sex with her because, he has said, he didn’t want his wife to learn of the relationship.



Hornoff had attended a fellow officer’s house party the night Cushman was killed. But despite Hornoff’s having a solid alibi, and without any kind of physical evidence linking him to the crime scene, Warwick police and then later, the state police, pursued him as the only suspect. A jury convicted him of first-degree murder in 1996.



Under the legislation sponsored by Serpa: “An award for wrongful conviction and incarceration calculated at $50,000 at the time of release and paid for each year served in a correctional facility. For incarceration of less than a year, this amount shall be prorated to 1/365 of $50,000 for every day served..[and] may be expanded to include, at the discretion of the court, in the interest of justice...Release from any child support payments owed to the state.”



The legislation [H5329] would also allow the payment of up to $15,000 in attorney’s fees.



The legislation has been reworked since it was first introduced.



Among the changes: The original bill also included payment for attorney’s fees, but without a cap. The reworked bill caps attorney fees at $15,000.



The original bill included many other benefits that would be covered after the release from prison, including housing, transportation, subsistence, re-integrative services, and mental and physical health care costs “incurred by the claimant for the time period between the claimant’s release from wrongful incarceration and the date of claimant’s award.”



The reworked bill says: “Access to and eligibility for any services provided by the state for offenders who have been adjudicated by the courts and are residing in the community under correctional supervision.”



If, however, the wrongful-convicted individual wins “a monetary award as the result of a federal civil rights lawsuit″ or “settlement agreement,″ that would be deducted from the state’s payment, or reimbursed.



Hornoff sued both the city and the state in federal court, alleging that the police violated his civil rights through errors in the murder investigation and by not preserving or considering evidence that would have cleared his name.



The City of Warwick agreed, as part of the settlement of two lawsuits, to pay Hornoff $600,000 and give him a work-related disability pension worth, at that time, $47,000 a year, tax free. It remains unclear whether that might impact his ability to collect compensation under the proposed new law.



In 2012, he withdrew his lawsuit against the R.I. State Police.