Imagine this. Your three year old daughter, whom you love with all your heart, trips and falls down the basement stairs. She bumps her head at the bottom, and being a concerned parent, you take her to the emergency room and you’re told she’s fine. For a few days, everything is normal, and suddenly she slips into a coma. Suddenly you’re being called a child abuser, and are accused of harming your own little girl.
Sounds preposterous? Not at all. Michigan has a long history of people who have been falsely accused and wrongly convicted of child abuse. Parents who spent years in prison for crimes they never committed. Families who were torn apart, children sent away to live with strangers, all because CPS and the prosecutor’s office got it wrong. Believe it or not, that isn’t the worst of it.
The Innocence Clinic has helped to get some of those wrongly convicted parents and caregivers out of prison. Sometimes new information comes to light later on, or new medical technology reveals data that was missed the first time around. Either way, several innocent people are released. But what now? Their lives have been destroyed. They’ve lost jobs, friends, relationships, integrity. All because of a mistake made by someone else. Don’t they deserve some form of compensation?
As it stands, Michigan doesn’t provide any type of compensation for those people who have been wrongly incarcerated, although thirty one other states and the federal government all do. In fact, people who are released from prison after wrongful conviction are not even eligible for the re-entry programs that the state offers to convicted felons, like help with housing, medical care and employment. All in all, it’s a terrible injustice.
State Senator Steve Bieda hopes to change that. By sponsoring Senate Bill 291, Bieda hopes to bring some form of justice to those who are victims of the system. The bill, if passed, would require the state to provide financial compensation to the wrongly convicted. Because as the Senator points out, the innocent should not be penalized for mistakes in the system.
Although the initial wording of the bill was weakened somewhat before passing the Senate, it was unanimously supported. Now, this past month a House Committee has passed their version of Bieda’s bill. Bieda says that he is confident that the bill will be fully supported by the House. If so, it will then return to the Senate for a final vote, before heading to the Governor’s desk.
As experienced defense attorneys who specialise in defending those who have been falsely accused of child abuse and neglect, this story isn’t new to us. We have handled a vast number of cases over the years, and have gained countless successful dismissals and not guilty verdicts for our clients.
Our best advice to anyone facing false accusations of child abuse or child neglect, is to ensure that you have the best possible defense attorney on your side. Child abuse and neglect cases are very emotionally charged. The prosecutor often relies on one-sided medical testimony and the juror’s fear of being wrong in order to secure a conviction. The best way to avoid a false conviction is to ensure that you never get convicted in the first place, and the only way to do that is to have an expert defense attorney fighting for your freedom. Call us today at 866-346-5879.