Cornerstone Research provided analysis used in securing a $1.23 million award to a person wrongfully incarcerated for more than twenty years.
Retained by King & Spalding, working in collaboration with the Georgia Innocence Project
Dennis Arnold Perry spent more than twenty years in a Georgia prison for a double murder he did not commit. In July 2020, at the age of fifty-eight, Mr. Perry was released from prison, based on new DNA evidence that cleared him and connected another suspect to the murders. He was fully exonerated of all charges.
Because the state of Georgia does not have a compensation statute, exonerees such as Mr. Perry do not receive any compensation for time unjustly incarcerated unless it is authorized by a private bill enacted in the state legislature. Attorneys at King & Spalding, collaborating with the Georgia Innocence Project, worked with members of the Georgia legislature to pass such a bill for Mr. Perry. Dr. Samid Hussain, Dr. Todd Kumler, and Laura Stiglin of Cornerstone Research assisted counsel in this effort by performing an economic analysis of the employment income, savings opportunities, and social security retirement benefits that Mr. Perry lost due to his wrongful incarceration.
In April 2022, the Georgia legislature passed a bill awarding Mr. Perry $1.23 million.