And this year, Alan Crotzer says he's ''optimistic'' that the Legislature will actually agree to compensate him for his lengthy time in prison, now that powerful Senate Republicans have committed to approving the claim. An identical bill died a year ago, but Senate President Ken Pruitt has said compensating Crotzer is a ``priority of the Senate.''
If everything goes as planned, Crotzer said he will use the free tuition also provided in the bill to go to college and get a degree that will let him work with young people in danger of winding up in the same place he called home for more than two decades.
''Money is just a tool,'' said Crotzer. ``They can't give me back my life.''
Crotzer, who now works for a Tallahassee nursery, was convicted in Hillsborough County of being part of a group of men who kidnapped five people and raped two women. He was sentenced to 130 years in prison. But DNA evidence later exonerated Crotzer and he was freed from prison in 2006.
Crotzer's claim would give him about $50,000 for each year he spent in prison. That's less than the $2 million given to Wilton Dedge, the fourth Florida man exonerated by DNA evidence. Crotzer was the fifth. A total of nine people have been exonerated through the use of DNA.
''This is your bill. This is your day,'' said Rep. Luis Garcia, a Miami Beach Democrat who pushed for compensating Crotzer. ``I cannot fathom what you went through for 24 years of wrongful incarceration.''
`CLAIMS BILL'
While Crotzer is close to getting compensated for his time behind bars, it remains unclear if Florida will put in a place a system to make it easier for the wrongfully convicted to get paid by the state. Currently a person wrongfully convicted must ask the Legislature to pass a ``claims bill.''
But the House and Senate are at odds over how such a system would work, including whether there should be a so-called ''clean hands'' provision -- automatically disqualifying anyone from compensation if they were convicted of a felony prior to being sent to prison wrongfully. Crotzer, who had been previously convicted of being an accomplice in a store robbery, would not meet that criteria.
FUTURE FRAMEWORK
Rep. Ellyn Bogdanoff, a Fort Lauderdale Republican and sponsor of the House measure, said it was important to create a ''framework'' for deciding how such cases would be handled in the future to make sure there's a ``clear line.''
The Senate version, which bars any violent career criminals from receiving compensation, barely made it out of the Senate Judiciary Committee earlier this week.
The legislation was approved by a 6-5 vote, with Sen. Alex Villalobos, a Miami Republican and chairman of the committee, siding with Democrats to pass the bill sponsored by SenArthenia Joyner, a Tampa Democrat.
Joyner defended the Senate version of the legislation, though she said she is open to making some changes in order to get it passed.
''We need to provide monetary compensation to those who we devastated by convicting and incarcerating them in error,'' Joyner said.
``We owe them a moral debt, although money and services cannot begin to restore anything approaching what those victims lost through no fault of their own.''
`CLEAN HANDS'
Senate Majority Leader Dan Webster, who also has been working on creating a way to compensate those wrongfully imprisoned, predicted that Joyner's bill ultimately will fail unless lawmakers go along with the ''clean hands'' provision.
Both bills call for paying anyone wrongfully compensated $50,000 for each year they spent in prison with a cap of $1.5 million.
A judge could adjust that amount in the future to account for inflation.
Miami Herald staff writer Nicole Bardo-Colon contributed to this report.
Audio | Florida U.S. Senator Bill Nelson outlines his proposed election reforms during a speech in the Florida Senate