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Donya Davis and his mom, Denise Larry. Davis spent seven years in prison before DNA testing helped overturn his wrongful conviction.

(Jonathan Oosting | MLive.com)

LANSING, MI -- When Donya Davis left prison after serving seven years for a crime he didn't commit, the state of Michigan gave him a parting gift: His own ID and four condoms.

"That was my 'coming home' package. Nowhere to stay, not even a hotel for three days so you can at least get a chance to breathe," Davis, a 28-year-old from Detroit, said of his release last June. "No, it's go home, out in the streets."

Davis had been sentenced to 22 years in prison in 2007 after a sexual assault victim identified him in a police lineup. Post-conviction DNA testing, requested on his behalf by the Cooley Law School Innocence Project, linked another man to the crime.

He was released last summer when his defense attorneys won a motion for a new trial and, in November, prosecutors dismissed the charges against him.

While Davis was behind bars, his mother was on the outside fighting for her son. She helped support his kids, tried to provide for him in prison, spent her savings on attorneys and eventually had to give up her home.

Davis has had a hard time finding a job due to the stigma of the case, he said. He and his mom, a registered nurse, are both now living in his grandmother's basement.

"I've never been angry, just disappointed," Denis Larry, Davis' mom, said as she fought back tears. "I'm one of those people that believes in the system, and all the way to the end, I kept saying 'It won't happen. Somebody's going to say this is incorrect.'"

Davis and a group of other wrongly convicted exonerees traveled to Lansing on Tuesday for a hearing on House Bill 4536, a bipartisan proposal that would see the state compensate them for their time behind bars.

Under the proposal, as introduced and advanced to the House floor in a 8-0 vote by the Criminal Justice Committee, they could qualify for $60,000 for each year spent in prison, along with economic damages and attorney fees.

A person seeking reimbursement would have to prove he or she was convicted of a crime, spent time in a state correctional facility and was later exonerated as a result of new evidence. By accepting the compensation, that person would waive his or her right to sue the state.

Thirty states and the federal government provide some form of compensation for wrongful imprisonment, according to sponsoring Rep. Stephanie Chang, making Michigan and outlier.

"When an individual is proven innocent after years of wrongful incarceration, the least they should expect is a state that wants to help make it right," said Chang, D-Detroit.

The wrongfully incarcerated don't just lose time, according to Sen. Steve Bieda, D-Warren, who has championed compensation legislation for years. Their job skills fade, relationships are damaged and they don't qualify for felon re-entry programs.

"The lives and reputations of these individuals have been devastated as a result of being in prison for a crime they did not commit," he said, "It's time for the state to do the right thing."

It's believed that 55 people exonerated from previous convictions have been released from Michigan prisons since the late 1980s.

Similar legislation has made it out of committee in previous sessions only to stall on the floor, but David Moran of the University of Michigan Innocence Clinic said he thinks there is "real momentum" this year.

Supporters were encouraged when Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, in his special message on criminal justice reform last month, called for legislation to help exonerees "get back on their feet" after a wrongful conviction.

Lawmakers on the House panel appeared to embrace the compensation concept, but there was some debate over funding. The bill does not include an appropriation, meaning lawmakers may have to budget out money for the program in the future.

"I'd hate to have something brought into law without funding, otherwise it's just an empty shell," said Rep. Kurt Heise, R-Plymouth Township, who chairs the committee.

Bieda estimates compensating the wrongly convicted could cost the state $15 million in year one, but he said those costs would fall significantly in future years once a backlog is cleared. Less than two wrongly convicted inmates are exonerated each year, he said.

The state may have already saved some money by removing innocent residents from prison, according to state Rep. Martin Howrylak, R-Troy. It costs an estimated $34,800 a year to incarcerate an individual in prison.

"$60,000 seems a little low to me," said Howrylak, noting time behind bars means less time with a spouse or child. "Do you think your life is worth more than $60,000 a year?"

Jonathan Oosting is a Capitol reporter for MLive Media Group. Email him, find him on Facebook or follow him on Twitter.