The great-granddaughter of Helen Wilson, a woman murdered in Beatrice in 1985, weighed in Tuesday as Nebraska legislators debated a compensation bill for persons wrongly imprisoned for crimes they did not commit.

"The day that she died is etched in my memory," Stephanie Meyerle said in an e-mail to senators, part of which was read on the floor by Sen. Norm Wallman of Cortland.

"I was almost 9 years old at the time of her death. I remember running down the hall of her apartment building to see her, only to be stopped by police barricades."

She was confused then, and she is confused today, at age 32, Meyerle said.

She urged senators to fully evaluate every aspect of the bill before voting on it.

They did that throughout the morning, digging into the process to compensate people who are wrongly convicted and imprisoned, including the six who served time for Wilson's murder.

Family members of Wilson have said they are not convinced at least some of the six were not present at the crime.

Even so, the great-granddaughter said, she believes the bill, in general, has merit.

Senators focused Tuesday on the details, centering on how innocence would be determined and what financial compensation a person deserved for loss of freedom.

They agreed it was tough to put a dollar figure on a person's liberty.

The bill (LB260) calls for payment of $25,000 for each year spent locked away from family, friends, jobs, education and the world. Senators turned down an amendment offered by Wallman to reduce compensation to $10,000 a year.

Did the victims get compensated? Wallman asked. It's hard to get a victim compensation bill through the Legislature, he said.

A pending amendment by Sen. Mike Gloor of Grand Island would pay $50,000 per year imprisoned, with damages not to exceed $2.5 million.

Another pending amendment by Lincoln Sen. Tony Fulton would cap damages at $2 million for people who served sentences on death row, and $1 million for those not on death row.

The debate also explored how innocence is determined.

Those seeking compensation for being wrongly convicted of felonies would do so through the State Claims Board, showing that the Board of Pardons has acted to pardon them, or a court has vacated the conviction upon finding of innocence.

They also could not have committed perjury, fabricated evidence or lied to bring about their own conviction or the conviction of someone else. That would not include a guilty plea or confession that was coerced by law enforcement and later found to be false.

A pending amendment by Omaha Sen. Pete Pirsch would require an "express written finding," by a court or the Pardons Board, of innocence of the crime.

In the Beatrice case, Assistant Attorney General Corey O'Brien told the Pardons Board that DNA test results unequivocally proved none of the six was in Wilson's apartment that night. One was cleared by a district court. The five who went before the Pardons Board also were innocent, O'Brien said.

"Not beyond a reasonable doubt, but beyond all doubt."

Reach JoAnne Young at 473-7228 or jyoung@journalstar.com.