On August 17, the State of California, with unopposed support from the Attorney General’s office, approved $140/day of compensation to Joel Alcox for his nearly 30 years of wrongful incarceration. The courts have ruled, and the State of California will be writing an “apology” check to Alcox in the coming weeks for the cruel injustice of incarcerating an innocent man. But noticeably missing is an apology from the Santa Barbara District Attorney’s Office, which led the charge in 1986 in convicting an innocent man and then spent dozens of years and countless taxpayer dollars fighting for and defending this horrible injustice.
Whether the Santa Barbara DA felt he was guilty or knew he was innocent, it no longer matters because the State of California has approved compensation for Alcox under the Wrongful Convictions statute. This formally acknowledges that the State of California and the Santa Barbara DA’s Office got it wrong in 1986.
And yet, to this day, Joyce Dudley, Santa Barbara's district attorney since 2010, has not apologized publicly, nor to Joel Alcox personally.