Dead man’s wrongful conviction request set for hearing

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The mother of a Madison man who died while trying to obtain compensation for a false conviction will get her day before a state board later this month.

The Wisconsin State Claims Board, which can provide $5,000 for every year a person spent behind bars on a wrongful conviction, on Dec. 19 will consider awarding $102,500 to the estate of Forest Shomberg, according to an agenda released on Monday.

Shomberg was imprisoned from 2003 to 2009 on a conviction for attempted sexual assault; DNA evidence later ruled him out as the culprit.

Shomberg went before the claims board a year ago only to be told that he had not met a standard requiring him to furnish “clear and convincing evidence” of his innocence in order to receive compensation. Shomberg appealed the decision and Eau Claire County Circuit Judge Michael Schumacher eventually ordered the claims board to award him an equitable amount.

Before Shomberg could appear before the board again, though, he died, apparently from a suicide.

Nathan Otis, a lawyer at Madison-based Nicholson and Gansner SC and the representative of Shomberg’s estate, said he will attempt to win the exact same compensation that Shomberg would be pursuing were he still alive.

The $102,500 claim amount includes the maximum $25,000 that the state will award someone for a wrongful incarceration, plus a $77,500 reimbursement for legal fees.

“He was certainly found to be entitled to compensation,” Otis said. “I don’t think his death changes his entitlement.”

Shomberg’s mother, Annette Bruner of Madison, could not be reached for this article. The scheduling of the Shomberg estate’s appearance before the claims board comes just a couple of weeks after the board awarded another wrongly convicted man compensation after being compelled to do so by a judge. The board announced on Nov. 25 that David Turnpaugh of Milwaukee would receive $36,847.89 for the three days he spent in jail and 57 days on house arrest as a result of his wrongful conviction on prostitution charges.

Like Shomberg, Turnpaugh at first was unsuccessful in his attempts to obtain money from the claims board. It only was after the failure of his second attempt that a Milwaukee County judge issued an order calling for him to receive compensation.

On the same day the ruling in the Turnpaugh case was released, a bill was introduced that would prevent judges from being able to overturn the claims board’s decisions. Among other changes, the legislation, Assembly Bill 534, also would increase the maximum amount of compensation a person can receive for a wrongful incarceration, taking it to $15,000 a year up to a maximum of $200,000.

Rival legislation, Assembly Bill 519, would increase the compensation amount to $50,000 a year and impose no cap on the total award. It also would remove the claims board from all decisions regarding compensation to the wrongfully incarcerated, instead leaving that matter to administrative law judges.

Neither bill has received a hearing before a legislative committee.

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