Dale Helmig is seeking compensation for the more than 14 years he spent wrongfully incarcerated in Missouri. After Missouri lawmakers expanded eligibility for wrongfully convicted people to receive compensation last year, Helmig thought he could get nearly $1 million for the more than 14 years he spent in prison. Darryl Burton hoped to obtain more than $1.5 million for the 24-plus years he was incarcerated. But today, they are back in the legal system that put them away.
The state attorney general is arguing in court that the two men aren’t innocent, setting aside judges’ prior decisions – and that even if they were, the new law isn’t retroactive. Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway’s effort to fight their compensation requests – the first two under the new compensation law – is part of a long history of the office vigorously opposing innocence claims.
Under her predecessors, attorneys there have kept people in prison even after a judge has ordered their release and continued to fight cases in the face of overwhelming evidence of innocence. A spokesperson for Hanaway declined to comment, citing the pending cases.
When Helmig and Burton were released from prison, only those exonerated through DNA evidence qualified for state compensation – not people like them, whose convictions were overturned based on recantations or other types of newly discovered evidence. Then, last year, the Missouri legislature expanded eligibility and increased the amount of money exonerees can collect. The measure was approved by Gov. Mike Kehoe. The law allocates about $65,000 for every year of wrongful incarceration. That amount is paid on an annual basis, not as a lump sum.
In Helmig’s case, a judge in DeKalb County, about an hour north of Kansas City, ruled in 2010 that there was clear and convincing evidence that he was innocent. Helmig had been convicted in the 1993 murder of his mother, Norma, whose body was found in a river in central Missouri, near where she lived. Prosecutors said his motive was a dispute over a phone bill, and that he’d thrown her purse from the bridge he would have traveled on from her home on the night of the murder.
But uncovered evidence implicated Helmig’s father, court records show. The couple were in divorce proceedings. Helmig’s father had access to her mail at a local post office, including a canceled check that was dated after her death and later found in the purse. That undermined the prosecution’s theory about when the purse had been discarded – a key detail in their case against Helmig. A state trooper also recanted his testimony. During the trial, he had told jurors that Helmig had not denied killing his mother when, in fact, he had.
“This case presents the rare circumstance in which no credible evidence remains from the first trial,” the DeKalb County judge wrote in overturning Helmig’s conviction. Helmig was released from prison in December 2010. He moved in with his brother and began rebuilding his life. It took him a while to find a job, but he eventually began driving a cab and painting decks. Sometimes he made extra money speaking to law classes about his arduous journey through the justice system.
