Oregon’s Department of Justice gave few indications Tuesday it is ready to change its approach to payouts for people wrongfully convicted of crimes, at least in the near future. Lawmakers at this week’s Joint Committee on Judiciary meeting heard for the second time this year from people who discussed Oregon's refusal to compensate exonerees who were imprisoned and later released when courts vacated their convictions.

“I am one of few people who have been through levels of hell that most people can’t even fathom,” exoneree Earl Bain told lawmakers. “I’m still not OK from all that.”

Bain, a disabled combat veteran, was wrongfully convicted in 2009 of sex abuse and spent six years in prison. He was pardoned by former Gov. Kate Brown in 2020. After a lengthy process with the state Justice Department, Bain reached a compensation settlement in July for $342,000.

In 2022, lawmakers passed state Senate Bill 1584, which requires Oregon to pay $65,000 per year for each year a person was wrongfully imprisoned by the state. The bill passed both chambers of the Oregon Legislature without a single vote against it.

“DOJ, they fought the compensation every step of the way,” Bain said, noting he settled for “pennies on the dollar” compared to what he would have been entitled to under the law because of the threat he felt he and his daughter could be exposed to through a lengthy court case.

“(We) suffered years of trauma that honestly made Afghanistan look good,” he told lawmakers.

The state Justice Department has adopted a practice of challenging most claims under the 2022 law, arguing that people who have had their criminal cases overturned should have to prove they were likely innocent of the crime and not simply released due to legal maneuvering.

“The statute clearly states that the petitioner, meaning the person that’s bringing the compensation claim, has the legal burden of proving their case,” Kimberley McCullough, legislative director for the Oregon Department of Justice told lawmakers at a February hearing on the issue.

Read the full article about Oregon's refusal to pay exonerees by Ryan Haas and Conrad Wilson at Oregon Public Broadcasting.