Idaho lawmakers are moving ahead on a bill to compensate the wrongly convicted. The House on Wednesday voted 70-0 to send to the Senate the measure paying $60,000 a year for wrongful incarceration, and $75,000 annually for those on death row. Republican Rep. Doug Ricks said Idaho is one of 15 states that doesn’t compensate people sent to prison for crimes they didn’t commit. Ricks says at least four wrongful convicted cases could result in payouts. One notable case involves Christopher Tapp, who spent 20 years behind bars after being convicted in the 1996 rape and murder of a woman in Idaho Falls. Tapp, who was 20 at the time of the crime, was released in 2017, and DNA evidence cleared him in 2019. Another man was arrested on DNA evidence last year and is charged with rape and murder in the woman’s death. Meanwhile, another notable case is that of Charles Fain, who spent the majority of his 17-and-a-half years in prison on death row. He was convicted of kidnapping, rape, and murder in 1983 following the death of a 9-year-old girl. However, DNA evidence not available at the time of the conviction later cleared him, and he was released in 2001. The child’s killer hasn’t been identified. (AP)
