TALLAHASSEE, Fla., March 27 (UPI) -- A bill that would provide $1.25 million to a man wrongfully convicted of rape has advanced in the Florida Legislature.
Alan Crotzer, who was released in 2006 after spending more than 24 years in prison, was exonerated by DNA testing. He had been sentenced to 130 years.
The House approved the compensation bill Wednesday, The Miami Herald reported. The measure failed to pass last year, but Senate Republicans now say they are committed to the measure.
Crotzer plans to use the money for college tuition and hopes to work with at-risk children.
"Money is just a tool," Crotzer said. "They can't give me back my life."
Florida has no system for compensating the wrongly convicted, although proposals are now in front of the Legislature. A bill that narrowly won release from a Senate committee would set compensation at $50,000 a year up to $1.5 million and bar career criminals from receiving payment.
The House bill has a "clean hands" provision that would ban compensation to anyone with a previous felony conviction -- which would keep Crotzer from payment.
