Panel approves resolution to compensate Cedric Moore for 23-year wrongful conviction (HR 130)

Representative Robert Crawford presented a resolution asking the General Assembly to compensate Cedric Moore for wrongful imprisonment after his conviction was overturned following modern DNA testing.

Crawford said Moore was wrongfully accused and spent 23 years in jail for a crime the court later found he did not commit. "Mr. Moore was wrongfully accused of a [sexual] assault and he spent 23 years in jail for a crime that he never committed," Crawford said when describing Moore's case and the exoneration based on updated DNA analysis.

Crawford explained the compensation amount included in the resolution was calculated as roughly 23 years at approximately $75,000 per year (minus certain fees and costs), producing the total in the bill of $1,600,000. The presenter and other members noted that a co-defendant, Mr. Robinson, previously received state compensation after earlier exoneration; committee members asked whether the amounts were consistent between the two cases.

Committee members raised procedural and policy concerns about the state's role in setting compensation figures for wrongful convictions, and several members said the legislature should examine broader systemic reforms so the body need not repeatedly adjudicate similar claims. Representative Holcomb and others said the case did not appear to involve deliberate prosecutorial misconduct but rather investigative errors and that the state had preserved evidence that later enabled DNA testing.

After discussion, the committee voted to approve the resolution to compensate Cedric Moore; the transcript shows the motion, multiple seconds and that the motion carried, but does not give a numerical tally.