JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — 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.”
