Jardine spent more than a third of his life in prison for a 1990 knifepoint rape in Haʻikū that he maintained he did not commit, and Hawaiʻi lawmakers are now preparing to approve compensation that his family says came too late for him to receive. State Sen. Karl Rhoads, who sponsored the original 2016 wrongful-conviction compensation bill that Jardine helped prompt, said the state and the criminal justice system were responsible for a delay he called a “horrible human tragedy.” Jardine’s death on Dec. 27 came after years of fighting the state for money he said he was entitled to under the law.
The compensation legislation in Hawaiʻi has faced criticism from defense attorneys who said the statute’s requirement for petitioners to prove they were “actually innocent,” even after a court reversed a conviction, made compensation difficult to obtain. In Jardine’s case, a Hawaiʻi Supreme Court opinion in 2024 interpreted the law more broadly, stating that when a court order reversing a conviction supports the conclusion that the petitioner did not commit the crime, the person’s claim for compensation can proceed.
Rhoads said this session’s legislative action would still require the state to pay the $600,000 settlement tied to Jardine’s case despite Jardine’s death. He said the money would go to Jardine’s next of kin, his 37-year-old daughter, Ashley Jardine. Rhoads also said he was disappointed the law had not done what he described as its intent: helping wrongfully convicted people return to their lives and reintegrate into society, including addressing gaps in support that many other formerly incarcerated people receive.
According to the attorney general’s office, the delay for Jardine’s case reflects factors that can include the complexity of civil litigation and ongoing legal considerations. Toni Schwartz, a spokeswoman for the Attorney General’s Office, declined to comment in an email on why it took so long to settle Jardine’s case, saying the office does not comment on “pending or recently resolved claims.” Schwartz said that, in general, the time required to reach a settlement in civil cases can vary based on “complexity of the case, procedural requirements, and ongoing legal considerations, including court proceedings and related court matters that may affect the timing of resolution.”
Jardine’s death followed years of hardship after he was released, his sister Naomi Aloy said, including poverty and substance abuse. She described how his prison time changed the way he behaved and how he struggled to maintain employment and housing afterward. She said Jardine had planned to use compensation to move to Hilo and buy a house and a truck, but died before any payment arrived.
A narrative about the case’s legal turning point traces to DNA retesting that excluded Jardine from bodily fluids found at the scene. After being tried three times for the 1990 rape, Jardine was convicted by the third trial and sentenced to 35 years in prison in 1992. After the Hawaiʻi Innocence Project was founded at the University of Hawaiʻi Mānoa in 2005, founding attorney Virginia Hench visited Jardine while he was held in Mississippi, and attorneys sought to retest DNA evidence preserved from the case. A Maui judge later ordered a new trial in 2011, but the prosecutor declined to retry, and Jardine was freed.
Over the years, Jardine’s family and supporters said he faced barriers that were difficult to overcome without assistance. Rhoads said people wrongfully convicted in Hawaiʻi do not receive the same level of support upon release that other formerly incarcerated people can receive, and he called it a “cruel irony” that he hoped legislators could address it this year.
Rhoads said he introduced legislation that would have required the state to start making $5,000 monthly payments to wrongfully convicted people immediately upon release, but the bill failed last year. He has introduced a new version, State Bill 3294, with added requirements that the state provide medical insurance coverage and case managers to help secure housing, employment and essential documents after release. He said the bill has been referred to two joint committees and has not yet been scheduled for a hearing, and he said the Attorney General’s Office opposed the earlier version, arguing that providing money before a claim goes through the full legal process conflicts with the state constitution’s requirement that “no public money shall be expended except pursuant to appropriations made by law.”
The session’s compensation proposals include another wrongful-conviction settlement: the $420,000 case for Roynes Dural, whose 2003 sexual assault conviction was overturned after he spent eight years in prison. Dural filed his claim for compensation in 2021, and Rhoads said Dural is also slated to receive payment this year. Dural said he knew Jardine because their sentences overlapped while both were held in Arizona prisons, and he said Jardine appeared to be struggling when he last saw him years ago. Dural said he expects the settlement to support his graduate studies and help his family, and he said he believed the state’s failure to provide support sooner would have changed Jardine’s life.