Lawmaker Continues Fight For Compensation For Two Wrongly Convicted Men

Having spent 25 years in prison for a wrongful conviction Lee Clark believed the fight would be over once he was exonerated. But after nearly two years of freedom he’s still fighting to receive compensation for the time taken from him.

In Georgia, the exonerated must have a sponsor from the House of Representatives who will plead their case in front of committees in the House and the Senate.

When Rep. Katie Dempsey, R-Rome, heard Clark’s story she knew that she would fight for him.

“Everything she’s doing, she’s fighting for me and I appreciate everything she’s doing,” Clark said.

The issue is that Clark only has one more year to go through the compensation process. In Georgia, exonerees only have two years following their release to go through the process. If he isn’t granted compensation in the 2025 legislative session, he never will be under the current legislation, Dempsey said.

Dempsey is sponsoring two exonerated men, Clark and Joey Watkins.

A Tale of Two Men

Both men’s tales have a lot of similarities, not just because they were both wrongly convicted of murder only a few years apart, but the same investigators were involved in their cases.

Each of the cases were investigated by the Georgia Innocence Project and journalists working to uncover issues in each case in the Undisclosed Podcast for Watkins and later the Proof podcast.

It was in prison where Clark and Watkins met and became close friends. They supported each other during their time in prison.

“We served in prison together over the years,” Clark said. “He’s like a brother to me.”

It is because of Watkins that he is free, Clark said. Watkins was working with the Undisclosed podcast to prove his innocence and he told the journalists about Clark, introducing his friend to the podcast that would change his life.

“I owe him everything,” Clark said.

The Fight Through the System

For the last year, Dempsey has worked alongside both men, bringing their cases in front of the legislature and seeking justice. When she brought their story before the House she said that it was emotional. Everyone in the room seemed touched by their stories, she shared.

“This was so heartfelt and so obviously wrong,” Dempsey said. “It was just a true honor to meet Joey and Lee and to try to help our state provide the resources to help them move forward.”

Dempsey’s resolution would grant both men $72,000 for each year they spent in prison. That would work out to $1,840,715 for Clark and $1,620,986. Both men’s compensations passed the House vote but stalled out when it reached the Senate.

The measures never made it onto the senate floor after being blocked by Senate Majority Whip Randy Robertson, R-Cataula, who led efforts to stop all compensation legislation in the past legislative session.

However, Dempsey is keeping up the fight. They’re going to go through the process again and fight for it, she said.

“When the state causes harm, we should compensate those that are harmed,” Dempsey said. “That’s what this comes down to, they were so young.”

The Lost Years

Despite what many call an injustice of the system Clark has maintained a positive attitude. When asked if he ever lost hope while in prison he shared that it would have been easy to give up, but once he did there would be no coming back.

“I don’t have give up in me,” Clark said. “I spent 25 (years in prison) for something I didn’t do. It was getting really tough on me, but I still had a lot left in me. I wasn’t going to give up.”

It wasn’t always easy to stay positive, Clark shared. There was so much negativity around, he said, that it was hard to not let it break you.

“My first five years, I was so mad at everybody,” Clark said. “I was so mad at the system. A jury of my peers did this to me. It was crashing down on me. If you spend too much time focusing on the negative it will break you down. I had bad days, but it was just finding the positivity in everything.”

In his time in prison, Clark got his GED and did the best that he could but he can never get that time back, his father Glen Clark shared. The years his son was in prison were incredibly difficult.

“I watched him walk into the prison as a boy and come out a man,” Glen said.

It was hard knowing we lost that time, he could have done anything, Glen said. He could have had a career, and started a family, but all of that time was taken from him.

“Their working years were stolen from them,” Dempsey said.