Expand / Collapse search
Watch TV
Menu

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2024 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper.

Tennessee

Lawmakers demand state pay man for wrongful imprisonment

Associated Press
Published | Updated
  • 9b3b5273-
    Image 1 of 3

    Lawrence McKinney, right, listens as Rep. Mark Pody, R-Lebanon, left, speaks at a news conference at the Legislative Plaza Thursday, June 16, 2016, in Nashville, Tenn. McKinney, who spent 31 years in prison for a rape he did not commit, continues to wage a battle with the state of Tennessee to get the compensation he is legally owed. It's been seven years since Lawrence McKinney was released from prison, but he has yet to receive the $1 million the state owes him for robbing him of decades of his life. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey) (The Associated Press)

  • 850c36fc-
    Image 2 of 3

    Lawrence McKinney, right, speaks at a news conference at the Legislative Plaza Thursday, June 16, 2016, in Nashville, Tenn. McKinney, who spent 31 years in prison for a rape he did not commit, continues to wage a battle with the state of Tennessee to get the compensation he is legally owed. It's been seven years since Lawrence McKinney was released from prison, but he has yet to receive the $1 million the state owes him for robbing him of decades of his life. With McKinney are Pastor John Hunn, left, of Immanuel Baptist Church in Lebanon, Tenn., and Rep. Mark Pody, R-Lebanon, center. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey) (The Associated Press)

  • 4020ca89-
    Image 3 of 3

    Lawrence McKinney speaks at a news conference at the Legislative Plaza Thursday, June 16, 2016, in Nashville, Tenn. McKinney, who spent 31 years in prison for a rape he did not commit, continues to wage a battle with the state of Tennessee to get the compensation he is legally owed. It's been seven years since Lawrence McKinney was released from prison, but he has yet to receive the $1 million the state owes him for robbing him of decades of his life. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey) (The Associated Press)

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Supporters of a man who spent 31 years in prison for a rape he did not commit are demanding that the state of Tennessee pay him what he is legally owed.

On Thursday, Rep. Mark Pody and Sen. Mae Beavers, both Republicans, called on the state Parole Board and Gov. Bill Haslam to do the right thing for Lawrence McKinney.

McKinney, who is now 60, was freed from prison in 2009 after DNA evidence showed he was wrongfully convicted of a 1977 rape and burglary in Memphis.

Under state law, people who are wrongfully imprisoned in Tennessee can be compensated up to $1 million. However, McKinney can't be paid until Haslam officially exonerates him.

A Haslam official did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.