Judiciary committee advances claims commissioner's award to Maceo Streeter after contested hearing

Anxiety and competing accounts of credibility filled a Judiciary Committee hearing Friday as members voted to confirm the claims commissioner's recommendation that the state pay compensation to Maceo Streeter for wrongful incarceration.

Alexander Taubus, attorney for Streeter, told the committee Streeter "spent 23 years in Connecticut prisons for a crime he didn't commit," and asked members to adopt the claims commissioner's "well reasoned, extremely detailed, and thorough" decision.

The claims commissioner, Robert Shay, explained his office had reopened Streeter's claim after the committee asked for a fuller explanation and held an evidentiary hearing. Shay said the office applied the wrongful-incarceration statute, which he cited in the record as "54 dash 1 0 2 u u," and listed 16 items in the decision that together, he said, constituted substantial evidence consistent with innocence.

During public comment, Joyce Gamble, whose son Terrence Gamble was the homicide victim, told the committee she believed witnesses had given conflicting accounts and asked the panel to consider "where is the justice" for victims' families if the award is paid. Karen Jackson, who recounted a 22-day wrongful detention early in her life, urged the committee to recognize long-term harms from wrongful convictions and supported careful review of claims.

Committee members pressed Shay on his methods and the evidentiary record. Representative Fishbein questioned why several witnesses who had testified at trial or in habeas proceedings did not testify in the claims-office hearing and whether the commissioner's reliance on recantations and other items met the statute's requirement of "grounds consistent with innocence." Shay said some witnesses did not appear at earlier proceedings and that the office had relied on a combination of evidence, including a 2022 pardon and recent sworn statements.

Several members voiced unease about the size of the proposed award and whether the state should shoulder financial responsibility for alleged police misconduct. Senator Kissel said he had "utmost faith and confidence" in the commissioner's work but did not find the evidence rose to the level of "substantial" under the statute and said he would vote no. Representative Fishbein and others likewise said they had doubts about whether the evidence met the statutory standard.

After debate, Representative Fasino moved to confirm the claims commissioner's recommended compensation award for wrongful incarceration to Maceo Streeter; the motion was seconded and the administrator called a roll-call vote. The record contains the per-member roll-call statements as read into the record; the motion passed on that roll-call.

The committee paused briefly after the vote and then proceeded to other agenda items, leaving the award decision as the most contested action of the morning.

The committee left open procedural questions raised during the hearing: how the claims office chooses witnesses for hearings, the role of a pardon in eligibility determinations, and whether additional factfinding would be advisable before large awards are confirmed. The claims commissioner said his office will continue to request that outstanding claims on the calendar be resolved promptly so "decisions and claims moving forward" do not stagnate.

The committee advanced the award by affirmative roll call; the record does not show the award disbursal date. The statutory standard the commissioner cited is recorded in the hearing transcript as "54 dash 1 0 2 u u."