At least a token is due to those falsely convicted

State senators are dealing with Nebraska's flawed safe haven law in a special session, but another issue, less urgent but just as important, awaits their possible action.

Nebraska's safe have law has drawn national attention because of the number of children -- up to age 17 -- who have been given up at hospitals by frustrated parents and guardians.

Almost as remarkable was the recent clearing of not one, but six people of the 1985 rape and murder of Helen Wilson of Beatrice.

Last week, Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning announced that not only did new DNA testing of blood, hair and semen recovered from the victim's apartment match a man who died of AIDS in Oklahoma in 1992, the testing excluded all six people who were convicted of the crime in 1989.

Three of the six completed their sentences and were released in 1994, and Bruning's announcement cleared the others. That means three of the innocent people were in prison five years, the others nearly 20.

At least one is considering a lawsuit against the state for wrongful incarceration.

Should the state pay?

Half of the states and the District of Columbia already do. California pays a maximum of $100 a day, Texas $50,000 per year or $100,000 if on death row, and Virginia 90 percent of the state's per capita personal income per year for up to 20 years.

But what about those who may actually be guilty, and whose convictions are overturned on a technicality?

Will prosecutors be less aggressive because they fear expensive compensation in case they're successful in a mistaken prosecution?

There's no paying back wrongfully convicted people for the years they have lost in jail, and no amount of money can turn back the clock.

But in cases like the Beatrice rape and murder, some sort of token admitting the state's mistake seems to be in order.