The Georgia State Legislature seems poised to compensate a man $400,000 for the wrongful arrest and conviction that cost him 11 years of his life. Lathan Rydell Word was convicted of armed robbery on September 7, 2000 and sentenced to 15 years in the State prison system. However, the conviction was overturned in 2011 when the victim of the alleged crime recanted and testified that Mr. Word was not the man who robbed him. After serving 11 years, 9 months, and 6 days in prison for a crime he did not commit, Mr. Word was released.

Georgia House Resolution 73, which overwhelmingly passed the State House and Senate, proposes to pay the sum of $400,000 to Mr. Word for the

“loss of liberty, personal injury, lost wages, injury to reputation, emotional distress, loss of consortium, loss of familial association, and other damages as a result of his more than 11 years of incarceration and expenses in trying to prove his innocence.”

The entire text of the bill can be found here:

http://legiscan.com/GA/text/HR73

Word’s case is interesting not only for the State’s quiet attempt to compensate for destroying a man’s life, but also for its procedural history.

Word’s initial conviction was overturned because Word received ineffective assistance of counsel at the trial level. The Georgia Court of Appeals, guided by the two-prong test set forth in Strickland v. Washington, found that Word’s trial counsel made unreasonable errors that likely affected the outcome of the trial. As such, a new trial was granted. It appears that at his new trial, Word’s alleged victim recanted. Read the Court of Appeal’s opinion here:

http://caselaw.findlaw.com/ga-court-of-appeals/1561212.html

It’s shocking to read about cases of wrongful conviction and lives lost to prison time, but it’s somewhat hopeful to see our legislature attempting to make amends for such judicial failures. Hopefully Governor Deal will sign HR 73 immediately and Mr. Word can begin to put this injustice behind him.