Wyoming Lawmakers Consider Assistance for Wrongfully Convicted Inmates

Seems appropriate, since their laws put those people behind bars

Two bills that would grant rights to Wyoming's wrongfully convicted received unanimous nods from legislators at the Joint Judiciary Interim Committee meeting in Lusk on Thursday. The committee will sponsor the bills at the next legislative session.

Committee members discussed two separate but related bills at the meeting. The first would give prisoners who are proven innocent by non-DNA evidence an avenue for a retrial; the second details compensation for those exonerated by DNA evidence.

Both bills build on a 2008 Wyoming law that ensures qualified inmates receive post-conviction DNA testing and provides for subsequent retrials.