‘Do the right thing’: Hawaii wrongful imprisonment law isn’t working for 2 in high-profile cases
HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - Two Hawaii men who were wrongly convicted and put behind bars for years are hitting another brick wall trying to win compensation.
Their next stop may be the governor’s office.
Hawaii law promises that people who are wrongly convicted and incarcerated are entitled to $50,000 for every year they spent in prison.
But in Hawaii’s two most prominent exoneration cases, the law has not worked yet.
In January 2023, Albert Ian Schweitzer was cleared after 23 years in prison for the rape and murder of Dana Ireland on the Big Island. The judge vacated the conviction and ruled if there was another trial today, Schweitzer and his co-defendants would have been acquitted.
Schweitzer’s attorneys plan to file a lawsuit over violation of his civil rights by Big Island police and prosecutors, but also filed for over $1 million in compensation for his wrongful incarceration.
Special Section: Who Killed Dana Ireland
State Senate Judiciary Chair Karl Rhoads authored the law that he expected would lead to almost immediate compensation upon exoneration.
“The part of the bothers me is that you should have gotten that within like three weeks,” Rhoads told HNN. “Because when you get out of prison, especially when you are not convicted of anything … when you’re exonerated, you get nothing.”
But there is a big catch in the law: It requires that the former defendant was “actually innocent” of the crime, which so far no judge or prosecutor has been willing to say.
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The state Attorney General did offer to settle Schweitzer’s claim for $800,000, but only if Schweitzer dropped his lawsuit over civil rights violations.
Rhoads said he was frustrated by that position.
“This is a separate state law that that is was designed for a specific purpose tying it, linking it to something else to me doesn’t make any sense,” he said.
Meanwhile, it’s been over four years since Roynes Dural was exonerated after eight years in prison due to a false accusation of statutory rape.
Except for a $40,000 settlement over a detective’s alleged misconduct, he’s received nothing.
“Even though you could never pay me enough money for what you did to me, you would think that I wouldn’t have to fight and continue to fight,” Dural said.
Sean Fitzsimmons, one of Dural’s attorneys, said they are trying another strategy allowed by the law — seeking a governor’s pardon.
“We are going to try our best to get as much as we can for Roynes because he deserves it,” Fitzsimmons said. “What he went through was insane.”
“I would hope that the governor would just do the right thing,” Dural said.
“I understand that it’s a touchy subject. I am just hoping that the governor will look at my life as a whole and see that I’ve never been in trouble I have always abided by the laws.”
Rhoads said he thinks the law is clear enough, but given the history so far, said it may need to be strengthened or clarified at the next legislature.
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