A clause in the Ohio budget bill may expand the compensation for the Ohio's ex-inmates for wrongful convictions. Critics of the proposed change said that the tweak would make Ohio's wrongful imprisonment law the most expansive in the country and cost the state millions of dollars a year. Supporters said the state should pay if law enforcement or the courts committed a procedural error that resulted in unnecessary prison time.

The provision eliminates one of the largest barriers to receiving compensation: that the ex-inmate would not be charged for any act associated with the conviction in the future.

It also clarifies a 2003 law about the timing of the procedural error and seeks to negate a 2014 Ohio Supreme Court ruling that determined compensation was only applicable when the error was made during sentencing.

The House added the change to the budget bill and the Senate plans to vote on the bill next week.

Brian Gutkoski, a Cuyahoga County assistant prosecutor who represented Ohio in the Supreme Court case, said the budget change would mean people who are guilty of crimes could receive state compensation because they were lucky enough to win an appeal on a technicality.

Gutkoski said any changes to the wrongful imprisonment law should be considered in a standalone bill, not buried in a 4,500-page budget bill. Attorney General Mike DeWine and the Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association agreed.

DeWine told to lawmakers in the last month that the change would allow someone who confessed to a murder to seek compensation if that confession is later thrown out.

Rep. Bill Seitz, the Cincinnati Republican who sponsored the 2003 bill, said the court got it wrong. The legislature always intended procedural errors, regardless of when they occurred in the case, to make someone eligible for compensation.

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Mrudula Duddempudi.