Claims board asks for $975,000 to be approved for wrongfully convicted man

MADISON, Wis. (WBAY) - The Wisconsin Claims Board has awarded $25,000 to a man who served 24 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit.

Daryl Holloway will receive the statutory maximum payment in Wisconsin plus $100,110.13 for attorneys’ fees.

In addition, the Claims Board has recommended the Wisconsin Legislature approve $975,000 in compensation for Holloway. The board believes the statutory maximum is not adequate in the Holloway case.

“Holloway notes that Wisconsin has the lowest annual compensation rate of any state that provides wrongful conviction compensation. Recognizing the inadequacy of that compensation, the Wisconsin Legislature has proposed several bills to increase compensation, including a 2016 bill providing $50,000 per year with a maximum of $1,000,000. Holloway is the longest wrongfully convicted person released in Wisconsin to date. His imprisonment during the most productive earning years of his life has caused him significant and measurable economic damages,” reads the board’s findings.

Action 2 News was there in 2016 when Holloway was released from Green Bay Correctional Institution.

DNA testing cleared Holloway in a sexual assault and burglary case from 1992.

Holloway talked about heartache and loss, and finding the strength to prove his innocence.

“I almost gave up on it when my mother died. I felt everything was gone. Because that was my rock,” Holloway said. “But I had to remember what she told me before she died. She said, ‘I don’t know and you don’t know what God may have planned for you. but you always remember he got something planned for you. And fight.’ So that’s what I got to do.”

Holloway’s release was won with the help of the Wisconsin Innocence Project. Co-founder Keith Findley said DNA found on the victims’ underwear “conclusively excluded Daryl Holloway and the victim’s husband.”