Man wrongly convicted in Idaho to receive more than $1 million in compensation

BOISE, Idaho (CBS2) — Thursday was a day for celebration at the Idaho Statehouse.

An innocent man who was on death row for 18 years has finally received his declaration of innocence and financial compensation.

At 72 years old, Charles Fain is a changed man -- changed from the nearly two decades he spent behind bars for a crime he didn't commit.

And today, the state recognized that. In 1981, Fain was wrongfully convicted of the sexual assault and murder of a child. He was freed in 2001 by his lawyers, thanks to DNA evidence, but Idaho had no mechanism to declare him innocent and no law to compensate him.

When he was freed, he received only a pair of dungarees and a jacket from the prison laundry denied even the services normally provided for a guilty person upon release.

"To give you an insight on being an exoneree off death row, there's 20-something men that have been exonerated by DNA," said Rick Visser, lawyer. "They were innocent men who were on death row. There are more astronauts that have gone into space than are death row exonerees."

This year, Idaho became the 36th state to pass compensation for wrongful convictions and created a certificate of innocence. The governor’s signature on the law concluded 14 years of work by the Idaho Innocence Project.

Fain will be receiving $62,000 dollars for every year he was wrongfully behind bars. When he received word of his compensation, he thanked the people of Idaho and asked them to remember the victim’s family.

He said he plans to retire, buy a truck and hopefully see more of Idaho.

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