by Mary Rupert
The State Finance Council today approved the more than $1.5 million award for Lamonte McIntyre of Kansas City, Kansas, who was wrongfully incarcerated for 23 years.
“This award is a long time coming,” State Sen. David Haley, D-4th Dist., said today. “There is no one who is more deserving than Lamonte McIntyre.”
According to Sen. Haley, the last hurdle for McIntyre’s compensation has been cleared. There was no opposition to the award, he said. Sen. Haley said he discussed the approval with the state budget director and the governor afterward, and was told that the award should be forthcoming shortly.
“As the one who introduced the original bill for the wrongfully incarcerated to be compensated, the McIntyre case was the inspiration for my advocacy,” Sen. Haley said.
Sen. Haley sponsored the bill for the first two years alone. Sen. Molly Baumgardner, R-Louisburg, was added as a sponsor the third year, and was instrumental in the bill’s passage, he said.
Sen. Haley said that Alvin Sykes, a human rights activist, is the reason he found out about the McIntyre case and the impetus behind the wrongful incarceration statute, and Sen. Haley also became aware of the case through the Innocence Project.
The Kansas attorney general approved McIntyre’s claim on Feb. 24, forwarding it to the State Finance Council.
McIntyre also has a case in federal court against some former Kansas City, Kansas, police personnel and the Unified Government.