For The Wrongfully Convicted, Time Runs Short To Get Tax Relief

For those once wrongfully convicted of a crime who have been exonerated, time is once again not on their side. A federal law that allows them to recoup taxes paid on any compensation they received for their wrongful convictions is about to expire, and yet many of them don’t know the law exists or how to take advantage of it. But one man has made it his mission to set things right.

The National Registry of Exonerations lists 1,928 men and women in the United States since 1989. They served, on average, about nine years in prison and, collectively, lost 16,000 years behind bars. Some had been on death row. Some were minors when they were convicted or had intellectual disabilities. All of them had been swept into a justice system that failed them.