Pair of claims bills filed for 2018 session

State capitol building of Florida located in Tallahassee

Two Florida Democrats filed claims bills for the 2018 Legislative session this week, one of which would pay a Franklin County company for trees destroyed in a prescribed burn and another that would compensate a Miami-Dade man for a shaky rape and robbery conviction.

Tallahassee Sen. Bill Montford’s SB 34 seeks to compensate Shuler Limited Partnership, a timber company, for 835 acres of trees destroyed when a 2009 prescribed burn in Tate’s Hell State Forest spawned three wildfires.

A  jury awarded the company $770,493 in a 2012 lawsuit in Franklin County circuit court, but state laws prevent the company from collecting more than $100,000 without legislative approval. A claim bill has been filed on behalf of the company every year beginning with the 2015 Legislative Session.

Fort Lauderdale Sen. Perry Thurston’s SB 30 seeks $1.9 million in compensation for Barney Brown, who was released after 38 years behind bars for a rape and robbery.

When he was 14 years old, Brown went on trial for raping a woman and robbing her husband and was convicted despite the victim having an inconsistent, contradictory story and being unable to positively identify him as her assailant.

Brown was released in 2008 after a Miami-Dade County circuit judge found that “significant doubt existed as to his guilt.” Thurston’s bill would pay Brown $50,000 a year for the 38 years he spent in prison.

Both claims bills will go before lawmakers in the upcoming legislative session, which starts in January. Historically, only about one in five claim bills are approved by the legislature, and many of those are passed after several sessions of being filed and forgotten by lawmakers.