Two years ago on Friday, Clemente Aguirre was exonerated after spending 14 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit — but he’s still fighting to get compensated by the state of Florida for that injustice.
Clemente was wrongly convicted of murder in 2006. After spending 14 years in prison — including a decade on death row — he was denied compensation because he didn’t file his claim within 90 days of his conviction being overturned, as the law requires.
Clemente Aguirre and his attorney Josh Dubin (right) the day he was exonerated of murder in November 2018. (Image: Phelan Ebanhack)
But Clemente couldn’t file within that period because, after his case was overturned in 2016, the state kept him in prison for two more years while prosecutors pursued a retrial and announced they would seek the death penalty a second time. It wasn’t until 2018 that prosecutors finally dropped all charges and Clemente was exonerated.
As a free man, he quickly filed for compensation. But the judge who reviewed his claim said that he filed too late under Florida’s current law, and that the court had no choice but to dismiss his application. The justice system that took away 14 years of his life has continued to fail him.
“Even though nothing has changed in terms of my compensation, I am still grateful to God for the amazing opportunity to live in freedom,” Clemente said.
To this day, Clemente has not received any compensation from the state of Florida for the years he wrongfully spent in prison, but he’s not giving up. He is fighting together with the Innocence Project to fix Florida’s broken laws so exonerees can be fairly compensated.
The Innocence Project exonerates the wrongly convicted through DNA testing and reforms the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice. www.innocenceproject.org
