Oklahoma declines to pay man for serving time as an innocent man

TULSA, (Okla.) — “I don’t think they never going to learn,” said Henry Jamerson

If Henry Jamerson has a catch phrase, that would be it. His $26 million dollar record breaking settlement with the city came after a lawsuit detailed allegations of evidence hiding by TPD. The same evidence that would ultimately exonerate him. And under state law there’s a provision for folks to get paid by the state for the time they wrongfully served.

“Under state statute Mr. Jamerson’s entitled to $50,000 a year for every that he’s been wrongfully imprisoned through the state of Oklahoma,” said Attorney Dan Smolen.

Now keep in mind, that’s above and beyond the $26 million from the city, a separate thing all together. But when Jamerson’s lawyer asked the state to pay up…

“I’ve not seen this happen before, where the state’s come in and denied relief to an individual who has been found actually innocent,” he said.

We reached out the AG’s office who told us they don’t comment on pending litigation.

Do you think they don’t want to pay because of the size of the judgement, $26 million against the city? “I think that that’s part of it. But again, these are separate entities that had different involvement in his wrongful conviction,” said Smolen.

Do you think Henry Jamerson is innocent? “Well, that’s for a court to make that determination,” said Tulsa County District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler.

We interviewed DA Kunzweiler a few weeks ago and were in the process of working on the story when the most recent lawsuit was filed. His office today told us, “As with any litigation, we do not comment on the specifics of the allegations.” Our primary purpose in interviewing the DA, was to drill down on the allegations of evidence hiding by TPD.

“The motto in this office is find truth, seek justice,” said Kunzweiler.

During the time when Jamerson was told by TPD that his evidence no longer existed, according to Smolen, Kunzweiler assured the court, “…there is no reason to doubt the city of Tulsa’s diligence in failing to locate petitioner’s evidence.”

I think the average person reading this would feel like you guys have egg on your face for no fault of your own but for TPD not being forthcoming with the evidence. “When I ask an agency to provide my office with information that I’m going to then turn over to the defense so we can properly litigate a case, I’m only as good the information that agency is providing to me. And if they are saying it’s not here or if they’re saying here it is, I’m only as good as that,” said Kunzweiler.

“No, you have absolute control over the situation, you’re communicating with these people on a daily basis, ok, you’re handling evidence on a daily basis, every case, it’s a cooperative process,” said Smolen.

After something like this happens, does your office say, ‘Hey guys, we’ve got to come up with some better way to verify when we’re asked about evidence whether or not that evidence actually exists?’ Because right now it sounds like you’re still on the honor system. “Well, but that system now is backed up not on a thirty-year-old case but on the cases that I’m dealing with the advent of technology we now have those kind of databases and the ability to actually track it in real time,” said Kunzweiler.

“I think they the DA’s office is missing the big picture, ok, and it’s that you have to hold those accountable whether you have a database system or not,” said Smolen.

As for Jamerson’s current legal action, that 50K a year amounts to roughly $1.2 million, meanwhile, and despite the $26 million settlement, to date, no one has been held to account over the evidence scandal.

“There is a systemic problem that exists with the criminal justice system in Tulsa County and the state of Oklahoma, and the more transparent the community forces that process to be, the more answers that they’ll have and the less innocent people that they’ll have going to prison,” said Smolen.