This is an opinion column.

“The state of Alabama couldn’t pay you enough for the twenty years that you served.”

Well, the state of Alabama doesn’t believe it owes brothers Frank Meadows, Jr. and Quinton Leroy Cook even a nickel. Not a single cent for the more than 20 years each man served in Alabama’s unconstitutional prisons for a conviction in a 1993 rape case that was overturned as “wrongful” on October 25, 2022, by Jefferson County Circuit Judge Shanta’ Owens.

Owen’s ruling was made after the presentation of newly discovered exculpatory evidence (the original police report of Leeds Police Officer Terry M. Miller) by attorneys representing the two men as having been withheld from the defendants’ lawyers and prosecutors during the original trial.

In her orders, in response to a Rule 32 petition for postconviction relief, Owens noted the report contained” information that establishes [their] actual innocence”, including the “original statement given by [the victim] to the police in which she said two men from Pell City attacked her and that one of the men was named ‘Ray’.”

In addition, Owens noted: “The report revealed additional blood evidence that was present at the scene and never tested.”

The new evidence, “established that the Petitioner should not have been convicted for this crime,” Owens ruled, “as the police report supports the fact that another person committed the crime in question and that there was additional physical evidence available in the case which was not tested.”

On the final day of the proceedings, the judge emphatically declared from the bench: “I understand when a wrong has been committed and [what it means] to make it right. The state of Alabama couldn’t pay you enough for the twenty years that you served.”

Alabama: Hold my wallet.

Under the state’s wrongful incarceration statute, applicants deemed wrongfully incarcerated may seek $50,000 for each year wrongfully served.

On Wednesday, however in a letter from state Sen. Greg Albritton, who chairs the Committee on Compensation for Wrongful Incarceration, attorneys for Meadows and Cook were informed that the two men were not eligible for compensation based on the determination of the Alabama Division of Rick Management (DORM), led by Assistant Attorney General Daryl L. Masters.

Not a single cent.

The decision was a reversal of DORM’s recommendations last March that Meadows was eligible to receive $1,106,988.11 (based on 19 full years of incarceration, plus 364 days in 1996 and 125 days in 2015, when he was released) and Cook was eligible for $1,007,809.78 (19 years of incarceration, plus 227 days in 1995 and 195 days in 2014 when he was released).

The amounts were pending certification by Albritton’s wrongful conviction committee and appropriation by the legislature.

The reasons for the reversal were outlined in a seven-page memorandum, dated October 26, 2023, from Masters to Albritton. The amended finding was based on discoveries found in a 573-page transcript of the original trial—both men were tried and convicted together—and other materials DORM sought after expressing “significant reservations” over their original certification of eligibility in the March letter.

The full transcript was not included in the petition for Rule 32 postconviction relief submitted to the Circuit Court. DORM stated the transcript contains “numerous references to items and circumstances which according to applicants, were hidden from them by the state…”

In addition, DORM found that an exhibit submitted to the court “appears to be a copy of page 256 of the original trial transcript.”

“It is therefore apparent that counsel for the applicants possessed at least a part of the original transcript and almost certainly had access to its contents,” the memo continued.

Its conclusion: “Based upon the unimpeachable evidence contained in the original trial transcript, each factor relied upon by the applicants fails to support their premise that ‘Newly discovered evidence supports Petitioners innocence,’ because simply there was no ‘newly discovered evidence.’ The findings of innocence by the Jefferson County Circuit Court were based on a falsehood perpetrated upon the court and is, consequently, [a] clear and obvious error.”

Perhaps most significantly, the memorandum states “innocence must be shown by an applicant that the conviction has been vacated or reversed and the accusatory instrument dismissed on grounds of innocence.”

Translation: Innocent until proven guilty is not a thing in Alabama if you want to be compensated for the state’s mistake.

“It is therefore our opinion,” the memo wraps, “that neither Mr. Meadows nor Mr. Cook are eligible for compensation because the circumstances of their incarceration do not meet the requirements of sections 29 to 156 Seven of the code of Alabama 1975.”

Related: Does former death row inmate Anthony Ray Hinton deserve compensation?

In this opinion, therefore: $1 million is the least of what Alabama owes these two men. For its mistake. For its wrongfulness.

Attorney Leroy Maxwell, who represents Meadows and Cook, in a statement to AL.com said: “We are aware of the committee’s decision to withdraw certification of the wrongful conviction application. My office is reviewing all the new documentation that neither we nor the District Attorney’s office had in our possession. While the timing in which the brothers learned of the innocence evidence is in dispute, in our opinion innocence itself is undisputed.”

Meadows and Cook provided a joint statement to AL.com: “We are disappointed by the committee’s decision to withdraw its previous certification of funds to us under the wrongful incarceration statute. Alibi evidence, DNA evidence, and the victim’s own statement that another man committed the assault prove we are innocent. We will continue the fight to clear our names and advocate for others who have been falsely accused.”

The wrongful incarceration compensation committee was created in 2001 by the state legislature to facilitate payment to people determined to have been wrongfully incarcerated by the state. The financial awards are for people imprisoned for felonies “of which the person was innocent.”

DORM provides administrative support to the committee. Throughout the law’s history, 59 applications have been submitted. Only four times has the committee recommended appropriation for applicants—the amounts totaled $738,631.

That would be, oh, about $738,631 more than Alabama deems Meadows and Cook deserve for losing two decades of their lives. Wrongfully losing.

Alabama, pay these men.

I’m a member of the National Association of Black Journalists Hall of Fame and a Pulitzer Prize finalist for commentary. My column appears on AL.com, as well as the Lede. Tell me what you think at [email protected], and follow me at twitter.com/roysj, or on Instagram @roysj