Wrongly Convicted Man Sues Texas Comptroller Over Denied Payments

Johnnie Lindsey says comptroller is inconsistently applying law

AUSTIN, Texas – Johnnie Lindsey, a wrongly convicted Dallas man once featured on the Discovery Channel’s reality series “Dallas DNA,” has filed a lawsuit against Texas Comptroller Susan Combs for failing to consistently follow the law when determining compensation for exonerees.

In the Monday filing at the Supreme Court of Texas, Mr. Lindsey claims the comptroller is ignoring a Supreme Court opinion issued in March 2011 that applies to his case.

In that case, exoneree Billy James Smith claimed the comptroller refused to pay the full amount owed to him by relying on a section in the law that restricts payments if an exoneree serves prison time concurrently with another sentence. Mr. Smith argued that the only reason he received an additional prison sentence was because of his original wrongful conviction. The Supreme Court of Texas agreed, and the comptroller ultimately paid more than $1.3 million to Mr. Smith and two other exonerees who had also filed suit.

Mr. Lindsey filed his compensation claim at the same time as Mr. Smith, and received payment for only a fraction of the 25 years he spent in prison. Mr. Lindsey watched Mr. Smith’s case progress to the Supreme Court, and expected that if Mr. Smith won, then the comptroller would pay him the rest of his claim, too. When Mr. Lindsey realized that the law was not being applied consistently, he hired an attorney.

“I knew that Billy had filed his lawsuit against the comptroller,” Mr. Lindsey says. “The issue was the same; the only difference is I did not think I needed a lawyer.”

Mr. Lindsey hired lawyer Kristopher Moore of McKinney, Texas-based Harrison & Hull LLP in May to help with the compensation claim. In addition to successfully representing Mr. Smith before the Supreme Court of Texas, Mr. Moore has helped dozens of other exonerees obtain fair compensation.

“The comptroller owes Johnnie Lindsey for at least four more years he was wrongly imprisoned, but refuses to pay him,” Mr. Moore explains. “She will not even consider the possibility that the Supreme Court’s decision applies to him too.”

Mr. Moore says that as long as the comptroller fails to consistently apply the law, the wrongfully convicted will have to pay high legal fees to enforce their rights.

To speak with Mr. Moore about his work for Mr. Lindsey and other exonerees, please contact Linda Hamilton at 214-585-0094.

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This release was published on openPR.