The St. Louis Post Dispatch reported on February 21, 2023
Six days after a judge declared him a free man, Lamar Johnson told members of a Senate panel Monday that the state must compensate people who have been freed from prison for crimes they didn’t commit.
Johnson, 49, who served nearly three decades in the Missouri prison system for murder, said he and others who have been freed not only need a stream of income but they need housing, a vehicle and a way to cover educational costs lost while they were locked up.
“It’s hard to put into words what it’s like to be free. Nothing can ever give me back what I lost,” Johnson said. “But this bill would provide the security I need to get on my feet.”
Johnson said he walked away from his prison term Tuesday with little more than clothes he received from friends.
“I have no car, no furniture and no place to call home,” he said.
At issue for members of the Senate Judiciary Committee are laws proposed by Democratic state Sens. Brian Williams of University City and Steve Roberts of St. Louis that could give those who like Johnson are wrongfully imprisoned up to $65,000 for each year they spent in a cell block.