@Arella Mae,
Interesting as the Federal government seem to had poke a very small hole in states sovereign immunity by the power of being the overriding sovereign under the civil right laws.
However from below it is a very very small hole that the three gentlemen we are talking about could not fit through.
Only cases where the state government agents acted in very bad faith in prosecuting the wrong person would this come into play.
http://criminal.lawyers.com/Criminal-Law-Basics/Military-Wife-Sues-State-for-Wrongful-Prison-Term.html
Compensation Laws
A federal law gives people who were wrongfully convicted of a federal crime the right to receive money. Under this law, you're entitled to $50,000 for each year you spent in prison. If you were sentenced to death, you're entitled to $100,000 for each year you spent on death row.
When it comes to state wrongful conviction compensation (if you were convicted in state court and spent time in a state prison), individual states have many different types of laws. For example, some states:
•Follow the federal model and give a pre-set dollar amount for each year you spent in prison
•Base the dollar amounts on ranges of years. For instance, such a law may allow for a payment of $80,000 if you were imprisoned for 5 years or less; $160,000 if you were imprisoned for 5 to 14 years, and; $195,000 if you were imprisoned for more than 14 years
•Multiply the number of years you pent in jail by the average annual wage or salary in the state
You should check the laws in your state to see how the compensation, if any, is calculated.
No Statute?
Not all states have laws that allow for wrongful conviction compensation. That doesn't mean, however, that you can't get some money. When the state doesn't have a compensation statute, you may want to:
•Ask for help from the lawmakers in your state, such as state representatives, state senators and even the governor. Through what's called a private bill or private compensation bill. This is a special law that, if passed, that entitles you to some compensation. The lawmakers will decide how much you'll get paid
•File a lawsuit against the state and the prosecutor for money damages. You'll have to prove that your civil rights were violated by the wrongful conviction and prison sentence.
These types of lawsuits aren't easy to win, however. That's because the prosecutor and the state have sovereign, or governmental immunity, from such lawsuit •That means you normally can't sue them for actions they do while performing their jobs. To win the case, you'll have to prove that there was no just cause for your arrest, or that you were cruelly or maliciously prosecuted - the prosecutor had some "axe to grind" against you or took you to trial even though he knew you were innocent
The D.A. in this case doesn't know what he is talking about, but you do.
