In November, Wisconsin Innocence Project co-founder Keith Findley (left) spoke about wrongful convictions at an annual banquet in Menasha, Wisconsin organized by the advocacy organization ESTHER. Findley stands next to Jarrett Adams, whom Findley helped free after Adams was sentenced to 28 years in prison. Photo by Andrew Kennard

The exoneration of David and Robert Bintz in a 1987 murder case has increased attention on what happens in Wisconsin after defendants’  convictions are overturned and they are released from prison. 

The Wisconsin Claims Board considers compensation claims by innocent people who were convicted of a crime. The board can award up to $25,000, not including attorneys’ fees, and not more than $5,000 for every year of wrongful imprisonment. It can recommend that the state Legislature award additional compensation. 

Re-entering society  

Exonerated people often experience more difficulty accessing services to help them reenter society than people who were released on probation or parole, according to Rachel Burg, co-director of the Wisconsin Innocence Project. 

State programs work with people on probation or parole before release, Burg said, and include pre-release job training, assistance with applications to public benefits and general release planning. After release, a person may have court or supervision-mandated programs, such as school or work requirements. 

“By no means am I saying being on probation or parole is easy or conducive to successfully reentering society, but in theory there is access to resources that are not available to the wrongfully convicted,” Burg said in an email to the Examiner. 

Exonerated people don’t have probation officers making sure they have their identification cards and get set up for Medicaid, she said, or parole agents helping with job applications. 

A guilty person gets more support from the state than an innocent person who was exonerated, Keith Findley, co-founder of the Wisconsin Innocence Project and an emeritus law professor at UW-Madison, said in an interview in November. 

“They’ve spent often decades in prison, had their livelihoods taken away from them, their relationships, their homes, their professions, their good names,” Findley said. “And then when we discover we got it wrong and made a mistake, we just open the door and say, ‘OK, have a good life,’ with nothing more from the state.”

Findley said Wisconsin could create a state forensic science commission, as well as conviction integrity units (CIUs) in prosecutors’ offices. In neighboring Michigan, the CIU in the state attorney general’s office  investigates claims of innocence that are accompanied by new evidence. 

Paths to compensation 

Exonerees in the U.S. may receive compensation through a civil lawsuit, a private bill passed by a state legislature or a state law, if the state has a compensation statute.

Wisconsin’s compensation cap for wrongfully convicted people is one of the lowest caps in the country. The rare exception to the cap is if the Wisconsin Legislature approves a higher amount.

The Wisconsin Claims Board decides whether to grant compensation to an exonerated person and can recommend that the Legislature award an amount higher than the $25,000 cap. 

The members of the Wisconsin Claims Board come from the Wisconsin Senate, the Wisconsin Assembly, the governor’s office, the Wisconsin Department of Justice and the Wisconsin Department of Administration. Currently, the legislative representatives are Rep. Alex Dallman (R-Green Lake) and Sen. Eric Wimberger (R-Oconto). 

How much does Wisconsin pay wrongly convicted people?

Wisconsin pays an average of about $4,200 per year of wrongful incarceration to those who filed and received compensation, according to an analysis of data collected by the National Registry of Exonerations,  Wisconsin Watch reported. 

A bipartisan bill that would have increased the $25,000 cap to $1 million passed the Wisconsin State Assembly in 2016, the Capital Times reported. It didn’t become law. The bill would have also granted assistance for  transitioning back into society and up to 10 years in the state’s health insurance program for public employees.

There were 39 states, along with the District of Columbia, with compensation statutes for wrongful imprisonment as of March. 

Some states’ compensation statutes allow exonerees to receive services, like assistance with tuition, job search and housing, Rachel Burg of the Wisconsin Innocence Project said.

As of July 2023, 62 Wisconsin exonerees were wrongly convicted in state courts since 1989 and potentially eligible for compensation, according to a research paper that used information from the National Registry of Exonerations. Jeffrey Gutman of George Washington University Law School published “Compensation under the Microscope: Wisconsin” in 2022, and it was updated in 2023.

As of July 2023, 25 of the 62 had filed claims. 17 of 25 applicants were granted compensation, and 8 were denied.

Gutman wrote that Wisconsin’s filing rate was significantly below a national average of 58% and said that “Wisconsin’s low compensation is a logical explanation.”  

In Findley’s view, Wisconsin’s compensation plan for exonerees “puts a very high burden” on innocent people to prove their innocence.

Wisconsin’s compensation statute does not give compensation to people because they show their conviction was overturned, the claims board said when it denied compensation to Lavontae Stinson in a 2024 decision.

Stinson’s conviction was overturned due to ineffective assistance of his legal counsel, the claims board said. For this to happen, Stinson had to show there was a “reasonable probability” that more effective counsel would have led to a different result.

According to the board’s decision, the Milwaukee County District Attorney decided not to retry Stinson because the state could not meet its burden of proof. According to the DA, additional information from Stinson’s post-conviction counsel “cast some doubt on whether Stinson was involved at all in the crimes for which he was sent to prison.”

To receive compensation, Stinson had to meet a different standard — proving his innocence with “clear and convincing” evidence — and the board ruled his arguments and evidence did not meet the standard.

Rare compensation from the Legislature 

In 2014, then-Gov. Scott Walker signed a bill granting Robert Lee Stinson an additional $90,000. In the end, Stinson was awarded the $115,000 he had requested from the Wisconsin State Claims Board — $5,000 for each year of his imprisonment.

Gutman’s “Compensation Under the Microscope” reported 17 cases of exonerees receiving state compensation, going back to 1989. Stinson’s case appeared to be the only example of the Wisconsin Legislature ordering additional compensation for a wrongfully convicted person following a claims board recommendation, he wrote.

Stinson spent over two decades incarcerated for a conviction based on flawed evidence, FOX6 Milwaukee reported. He settled litigation with the city of Milwaukee for $7.5 million.

Jarrett Adams, an attorney working with David and Robert Bintz, didn’t yet know if the brothers could make a claim for a federal lawsuit, he told the Examiner in late February. Wisconsin’s compensation statute might be the brothers’ only opportunity for compensation, he said. 

In the case of Daryl Holloway, the claims board recommended an additional $975,000 in March 2022, Gutman wrote, and the Legislature hadn’t acted on the recommendation as of June 2023. 

After a 3-2 vote, in a Jan. 30 decision, the board awarded Gabriel Lugo $25,000 in compensation, not including attorneys’ fees. 

Lugo had been sentenced to 30 years in prison for a 2008 shooting and released in 2023 after his conviction was vacated. The board recommended that the Legislature award Lugo an additional $750,000.

This is Part Two in a series on wrongful convictions. Read Part One here.

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David Bintz, who was wrongly incarcerated, stands outside Mountains of Hope, the nonprofit where he finally found temporary housing after trying local shelters. | Photo courtesy Jarrett Adams Law

Robert Bintz wishes he could recover time lost behind bars. 

In September, the convictions of Robert and his brother David Bintz in the 1987 murder of Sandra Lison were overturned. The brothers left prison more two decades after they were convicted. 

“I missed my mom, before she died,” Robert Bintz told the Examiner in November. His mother passed away while he was incarcerated. “I missed my niece, Hannah. Got killed by a horrible car accident… I missed my job I once had.”

Upon his release from prison, Robert didn’t receive any reentry assistance from the state, according to his compensation request to the Wisconsin Claims Board in February. His sister isn’t able to meet his complex needs, the request said. 

The brothers are seeking $2 million apiece from the state for their imprisonment. Their compensation requests cite high anticipated costs for health care. 

“He’s 68 years old,” Isaiah Eastling, Robert’s nephew, told the Examiner in November. “It’s not fair for him to have to go and get a job like all of us, and just to try to get back into society like that. That’s impossible.”

Wisconsin law caps compensation for wrongful imprisonment at $25,000, unless the state Legislature grants more compensation, which is rare.

To award money, the Wisconsin Claims Board must find that evidence of innocence is “clear and convincing” and that the petitioner did not contribute to bring about their conviction and imprisonment by something they did or failed to do.

Jarrett Adams, an attorney working with the Bintz brothers, doesn’t yet know if they have a claim for a federal lawsuit, he said in late February. He said the brothers might not have an opportunity to get compensation if the state does not award it.

Robert’s sister, Cindy Eastling, said Robert called her every week when he was in prison. But she “had no idea that he had all these health issues.”

With little time to prepare, Eastling wasn’t ready for Robert’s arrival, she told the Examiner in November. His eye and arm were bruised, and he later told her he was beat up, she said.

He requires around-the-clock care and 20 daily medications for physical and mental health conditions, which worsened without sufficient medical attention in the prison system, according to his compensation claim. Eastling said her brothers will probably need assistance for the rest of their lives, and that they could be taken advantage of on their own.

“Bobby knows I love him, but it really took a toll on me,” Eastling said. “…I wasn’t prepared, and then the way he showed up, he looked absolutely horrible… he looks so much [healthier] now. We’re doing one physical problem at a time.”

Eastling said Robert’s asthma had improved. He used to use a nebulizer multiple times a day, she said. When Eastling spoke to the Examiner, he hadn’t used it in three weeks.

“Honestly, it scared me,” Eastling said. “I thought one morning I’d wake up and he’d be dead.”

The brothers have health care coverage, but it’s a challenge at times, Carla Broadnax of Jarrett Adams Law said in late February. 

Broadnax said that “accessing consistent care is persistently tricky, partially due to the cost associated with transportation, medical appointments, and necessary medications.” 

Housing has been an issue for both brothers, according to the compensation requests filed in February. After trying to find housing at shelters, David found a place to stay in Appleton through the help of a local nonprofit. 

David’s shared housing situation is temporary and not sufficient to meet his needs, as of his compensation request. Robert’s request said he hasn’t been able to acquire housing that can assist him with the round-the-clock support needed. 

Cindy Eastling thinks the system should work faster to support her brothers in the short term. A GoFundMe for David Bintz raised $4,165, with a $10,000 goal. Robert’s GoFundMe raised $12,829 with a $20,000 goal. David’s compensation request said his monthly disability and social security payments cover only his most basic needs. 

“This leaves everybody scrambling, [when] somebody like David and Robert gets out,” Adams said. “Everybody’s just trying to do what they can.”

Adams himself was once incarcerated and released after his conviction was overturned,and he co-founded the organization Life After Justice, which supports wrongfully convicted people. In late February, he said the brothers are receiving mental health care through the organization. 

“…He’s holding back a lot of things, I can tell,” Cindy Eastling said about Robert Bintz. “And he’s always happy, but bad things happened to him in there.” 

How were the Bintz brothers prosecuted? 

In 1999, the brothers were charged with the 1987 murder of Sandra Lison, according to the National Registry of Exonerations. Testing of semen from a rape kit found that it didn’t belong to the brothers, and blood found under Lison’s body was not theirs. 

Additional DNA testing obtained by the Wisconsin Innocence Project in 2006 confirmed that blood found on Lison’s dress came from the same male whose sperm was found in the rape kit, according to the exonerations registry. A motion for a new trial was denied.

The Brown County Attorney’s Office prosecuted the brothers with a theory of robbery and murder. After the brothers’ exoneration in September, Brown County District Attorney David Lasee spoke to NBC 26.

“The prosecutors and the law enforcement officers were handling this case at the outset, followed the evidence that they had at that time, and that conviction was sound,” Lasee said.

Evidence against the brothers included statements from incarcerated people who said David had admitted to the crime.

In an interview with detectives, David Bintz eventually agreed to a statement that he and his brother were involved and that his brother had strangled Lison, according to David’s page in the National Registry of Exonerations. At the same time, he gave contradictory statements that he wasn’t involved and was home at the time of the crime.

David Bintz’s request for compensation claims that Bintz, who was intellectually disabled, was interrogated for over six hours, “depriving him of food, water and restroom breaks in clear violation of his rights.”

“During the interrogation, David Bintz maintained his innocence, but after several hours, he made confused and contradictory statements — some of which confirmed Swendby’s allegations, others which stressed his innocence,” the request states.

The request says David was coerced by the pressure and tactics of the detectives and signed a false statement implicating himself and Robert Bintz in Lison’s murder.

The Examiner asked Jarrett Adams Law about the sources the firm used for a section of the compensation request about the confession. Facts in the firm’s complaint, findings from investigative reports and communication with the Bintz brothers provided the context and basis for that part of the request, Broadnax said. 

Of 375 DNA exonerations between 1989 and 2020 tracked by the Innocence Project, over a quarter involved a false confession. 

The brothers had multiple convictions prior to their convictions in Lison’s murder, according to Brown County court records. In 1997, David was sentenced to prison for sexual assault. 

Jarrett Adams said that the identity of Lison’s attacker is now known and “nothing else matters but that. It wasn’t them.” 

Last year, investigative genetic genealogy linked crime scene evidence to three male children of a couple in the Green Bay area. In August, the Wisconsin State Crime Laboratory determined that substances at the crime scene pointed conclusively to William Hendricks, who had a history of violent sexual attacks before his death in 2000. 

“The notion that Ms. Lison was having a secret sexual relationship with a recently-released convicted rapist is utterly implausible,” the Great North Innocence Project said in a motion to vacate Robert Bintz’s conviction, according to the exonerations registry.  

Life after exoneration

If the Bintz brothers receive compensation from the state, they have ideas for how to use it beyond paying for health care expenses. In late February,  Broadnax told the Examiner about the brothers’ plans.

They both want to own a home, she said. In an interview with the Examiner, David talked about helping others.“I’d help a couple people out that ain’t got nothing,” he said.

Robert wants to travel and see the world, and David wants to eat home-cooked food, Broadnax said. 

“The food was straight garbage,” David said of the food in prison. “Half [the] time, I didn’t eat the food. I just bought stuff off canteen if I could.”

David has been making cards, Broadnax said. He sends cards to about four to five incarcerated people, and also uses his cards and designs to help with the decor at Mountains of Hope, the nonprofit through which he found a place to stay. 

“That was my hobby,” David said. “When I knew I was getting out, he wanted me to leave all my art supplies behind. I said ‘No, I’m not leaving my stuff behind. I’m still going to do this when I get out.’”

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In November, Wisconsin Innocence Project co-founder Keith Findley (left) spoke about wrongful convictions at an annual banquet in Menasha, Wisconsin organized by the advocacy organization ESTHER. Findley stands next to Jarrett Adams, whom Findley helped free after Adams was sentenced to 28 years in prison. Photo by Andrew Kennard

The exoneration of David and Robert Bintz in a 1987 murder case has increased attention on what happens in Wisconsin after defendants’  convictions are overturned and they are released from prison. 

The Wisconsin Claims Board considers compensation claims by innocent people who were convicted of a crime. The board can award up to $25,000, not including attorneys’ fees, and not more than $5,000 for every year of wrongful imprisonment. It can recommend that the state Legislature award additional compensation. 

Re-entering society  

Exonerated people often experience more difficulty accessing services to help them reenter society than people who were released on probation or parole, according to Rachel Burg, co-director of the Wisconsin Innocence Project. 

State programs work with people on probation or parole before release, Burg said, and include pre-release job training, assistance with applications to public benefits and general release planning. After release, a person may have court or supervision-mandated programs, such as school or work requirements. 

“By no means am I saying being on probation or parole is easy or conducive to successfully reentering society, but in theory there is access to resources that are not available to the wrongfully convicted,” Burg said in an email to the Examiner. 

Exonerated people don’t have probation officers making sure they have their identification cards and get set up for Medicaid, she said, or parole agents helping with job applications. 

A guilty person gets more support from the state than an innocent person who was exonerated, Keith Findley, co-founder of the Wisconsin Innocence Project and an emeritus law professor at UW-Madison, said in an interview in November. 

“They’ve spent often decades in prison, had their livelihoods taken away from them, their relationships, their homes, their professions, their good names,” Findley said. “And then when we discover we got it wrong and made a mistake, we just open the door and say, ‘OK, have a good life,’ with nothing more from the state.”

Findley said Wisconsin could create a state forensic science commission, as well as conviction integrity units (CIUs) in prosecutors’ offices. In neighboring Michigan, the CIU in the state attorney general’s office  investigates claims of innocence that are accompanied by new evidence. 

Paths to compensation 

Exonerees in the U.S. may receive compensation through a civil lawsuit, a private bill passed by a state legislature or a state law, if the state has a compensation statute.

Wisconsin’s compensation cap for wrongfully convicted people is one of the lowest caps in the country. The rare exception to the cap is if the Wisconsin Legislature approves a higher amount.

The Wisconsin Claims Board decides whether to grant compensation to an exonerated person and can recommend that the Legislature award an amount higher than the $25,000 cap. 

The members of the Wisconsin Claims Board come from the Wisconsin Senate, the Wisconsin Assembly, the governor’s office, the Wisconsin Department of Justice and the Wisconsin Department of Administration. Currently, the legislative representatives are Rep. Alex Dallman (R-Green Lake) and Sen. Eric Wimberger (R-Oconto). 

How much does Wisconsin pay wrongly convicted people?

Wisconsin pays an average of about $4,200 per year of wrongful incarceration to those who filed and received compensation, according to an analysis of data collected by the National Registry of Exonerations,  Wisconsin Watch reported. 

A bipartisan bill that would have increased the $25,000 cap to $1 million passed the Wisconsin State Assembly in 2016, the Capital Times reported. It didn’t become law. The bill would have also granted assistance for  transitioning back into society and up to 10 years in the state’s health insurance program for public employees.

There were 39 states, along with the District of Columbia, with compensation statutes for wrongful imprisonment as of March. 

Some states’ compensation statutes allow exonerees to receive services, like assistance with tuition, job search and housing, Rachel Burg of the Wisconsin Innocence Project said.

As of July 2023, 62 Wisconsin exonerees were wrongly convicted in state courts since 1989 and potentially eligible for compensation, according to a research paper that used information from the National Registry of Exonerations. Jeffrey Gutman of George Washington University Law School published “Compensation under the Microscope: Wisconsin” in 2022, and it was updated in 2023.

As of July 2023, 25 of the 62 had filed claims. 17 of 25 applicants were granted compensation, and 8 were denied.

Gutman wrote that Wisconsin’s filing rate was significantly below a national average of 58% and said that “Wisconsin’s low compensation is a logical explanation.”  

In Findley’s view, Wisconsin’s compensation plan for exonerees “puts a very high burden” on innocent people to prove their innocence.

Wisconsin’s compensation statute does not give compensation to people because they show their conviction was overturned, the claims board said when it denied compensation to Lavontae Stinson in a 2024 decision.

Stinson’s conviction was overturned due to ineffective assistance of his legal counsel, the claims board said. For this to happen, Stinson had to show there was a “reasonable probability” that more effective counsel would have led to a different result.

According to the board’s decision, the Milwaukee County District Attorney decided not to retry Stinson because the state could not meet its burden of proof. According to the DA, additional information from Stinson’s post-conviction counsel “cast some doubt on whether Stinson was involved at all in the crimes for which he was sent to prison.”

To receive compensation, Stinson had to meet a different standard — proving his innocence with “clear and convincing” evidence — and the board ruled his arguments and evidence did not meet the standard.

Rare compensation from the Legislature 

In 2014, then-Gov. Scott Walker signed a bill granting Robert Lee Stinson an additional $90,000. In the end, Stinson was awarded the $115,000 he had requested from the Wisconsin State Claims Board — $5,000 for each year of his imprisonment.

Gutman’s “Compensation Under the Microscope” reported 17 cases of exonerees receiving state compensation, going back to 1989. Stinson’s case appeared to be the only example of the Wisconsin Legislature ordering additional compensation for a wrongfully convicted person following a claims board recommendation, he wrote.

Stinson spent over two decades incarcerated for a conviction based on flawed evidence, FOX6 Milwaukee reported. He settled litigation with the city of Milwaukee for $7.5 million.

Jarrett Adams, an attorney working with David and Robert Bintz, didn’t yet know if the brothers could make a claim for a federal lawsuit, he told the Examiner in late February. Wisconsin’s compensation statute might be the brothers’ only opportunity for compensation, he said. 

In the case of Daryl Holloway, the claims board recommended an additional $975,000 in March 2022, Gutman wrote, and the Legislature hadn’t acted on the recommendation as of June 2023. 

After a 3-2 vote, in a Jan. 30 decision, the board awarded Gabriel Lugo $25,000 in compensation, not including attorneys’ fees. 

Lugo had been sentenced to 30 years in prison for a 2008 shooting and released in 2023 after his conviction was vacated. The board recommended that the Legislature award Lugo an additional $750,000.

This is Part Two in a series on wrongful convictions. Read Part One here.

GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.

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David Bintz, who was wrongly incarcerated, stands outside Mountains of Hope, the nonprofit where he finally found temporary housing after trying local shelters. | Photo courtesy Jarrett Adams Law

Robert Bintz wishes he could recover time lost behind bars. 

In September, the convictions of Robert and his brother David Bintz in the 1987 murder of Sandra Lison were overturned. The brothers left prison more two decades after they were convicted. 

“I missed my mom, before she died,” Robert Bintz told the Examiner in November. His mother passed away while he was incarcerated. “I missed my niece, Hannah. Got killed by a horrible car accident… I missed my job I once had.”

Upon his release from prison, Robert didn’t receive any reentry assistance from the state, according to his compensation request to the Wisconsin Claims Board in February. His sister isn’t able to meet his complex needs, the request said. 

The brothers are seeking $2 million apiece from the state for their imprisonment. Their compensation requests cite high anticipated costs for health care. 

“He’s 68 years old,” Isaiah Eastling, Robert’s nephew, told the Examiner in November. “It’s not fair for him to have to go and get a job like all of us, and just to try to get back into society like that. That’s impossible.”

Wisconsin law caps compensation for wrongful imprisonment at $25,000, unless the state Legislature grants more compensation, which is rare.

To award money, the Wisconsin Claims Board must find that evidence of innocence is “clear and convincing” and that the petitioner did not contribute to bring about their conviction and imprisonment by something they did or failed to do.

Jarrett Adams, an attorney working with the Bintz brothers, doesn’t yet know if they have a claim for a federal lawsuit, he said in late February. He said the brothers might not have an opportunity to get compensation if the state does not award it.

Robert’s sister, Cindy Eastling, said Robert called her every week when he was in prison. But she “had no idea that he had all these health issues.”

With little time to prepare, Eastling wasn’t ready for Robert’s arrival, she told the Examiner in November. His eye and arm were bruised, and he later told her he was beat up, she said.

He requires around-the-clock care and 20 daily medications for physical and mental health conditions, which worsened without sufficient medical attention in the prison system, according to his compensation claim. Eastling said her brothers will probably need assistance for the rest of their lives, and that they could be taken advantage of on their own.

“Bobby knows I love him, but it really took a toll on me,” Eastling said. “…I wasn’t prepared, and then the way he showed up, he looked absolutely horrible… he looks so much [healthier] now. We’re doing one physical problem at a time.”

Eastling said Robert’s asthma had improved. He used to use a nebulizer multiple times a day, she said. When Eastling spoke to the Examiner, he hadn’t used it in three weeks.

“Honestly, it scared me,” Eastling said. “I thought one morning I’d wake up and he’d be dead.”

The brothers have health care coverage, but it’s a challenge at times, Carla Broadnax of Jarrett Adams Law said in late February. 

Broadnax said that “accessing consistent care is persistently tricky, partially due to the cost associated with transportation, medical appointments, and necessary medications.” 

Housing has been an issue for both brothers, according to the compensation requests filed in February. After trying to find housing at shelters, David found a place to stay in Appleton through the help of a local nonprofit. 

David’s shared housing situation is temporary and not sufficient to meet his needs, as of his compensation request. Robert’s request said he hasn’t been able to acquire housing that can assist him with the round-the-clock support needed. 

Cindy Eastling thinks the system should work faster to support her brothers in the short term. A GoFundMe for David Bintz raised $4,165, with a $10,000 goal. Robert’s GoFundMe raised $12,829 with a $20,000 goal. David’s compensation request said his monthly disability and social security payments cover only his most basic needs. 

“This leaves everybody scrambling, [when] somebody like David and Robert gets out,” Adams said. “Everybody’s just trying to do what they can.”

Adams himself was once incarcerated and released after his conviction was overturned,and he co-founded the organization Life After Justice, which supports wrongfully convicted people. In late February, he said the brothers are receiving mental health care through the organization. 

“…He’s holding back a lot of things, I can tell,” Cindy Eastling said about Robert Bintz. “And he’s always happy, but bad things happened to him in there.” 

How were the Bintz brothers prosecuted? 

In 1999, the brothers were charged with the 1987 murder of Sandra Lison, according to the National Registry of Exonerations. Testing of semen from a rape kit found that it didn’t belong to the brothers, and blood found under Lison’s body was not theirs. 

Additional DNA testing obtained by the Wisconsin Innocence Project in 2006 confirmed that blood found on Lison’s dress came from the same male whose sperm was found in the rape kit, according to the exonerations registry. A motion for a new trial was denied.

The Brown County Attorney’s Office prosecuted the brothers with a theory of robbery and murder. After the brothers’ exoneration in September, Brown County District Attorney David Lasee spoke to NBC 26.

“The prosecutors and the law enforcement officers were handling this case at the outset, followed the evidence that they had at that time, and that conviction was sound,” Lasee said.

Evidence against the brothers included statements from incarcerated people who said David had admitted to the crime.

In an interview with detectives, David Bintz eventually agreed to a statement that he and his brother were involved and that his brother had strangled Lison, according to David’s page in the National Registry of Exonerations. At the same time, he gave contradictory statements that he wasn’t involved and was home at the time of the crime.

David Bintz’s request for compensation claims that Bintz, who was intellectually disabled, was interrogated for over six hours, “depriving him of food, water and restroom breaks in clear violation of his rights.”

“During the interrogation, David Bintz maintained his innocence, but after several hours, he made confused and contradictory statements — some of which confirmed Swendby’s allegations, others which stressed his innocence,” the request states.

The request says David was coerced by the pressure and tactics of the detectives and signed a false statement implicating himself and Robert Bintz in Lison’s murder.

The Examiner asked Jarrett Adams Law about the sources the firm used for a section of the compensation request about the confession. Facts in the firm’s complaint, findings from investigative reports and communication with the Bintz brothers provided the context and basis for that part of the request, Broadnax said. 

Of 375 DNA exonerations between 1989 and 2020 tracked by the Innocence Project, over a quarter involved a false confession. 

The brothers had multiple convictions prior to their convictions in Lison’s murder, according to Brown County court records. In 1997, David was sentenced to prison for sexual assault. 

Jarrett Adams said that the identity of Lison’s attacker is now known and “nothing else matters but that. It wasn’t them.” 

Last year, investigative genetic genealogy linked crime scene evidence to three male children of a couple in the Green Bay area. In August, the Wisconsin State Crime Laboratory determined that substances at the crime scene pointed conclusively to William Hendricks, who had a history of violent sexual attacks before his death in 2000. 

“The notion that Ms. Lison was having a secret sexual relationship with a recently-released convicted rapist is utterly implausible,” the Great North Innocence Project said in a motion to vacate Robert Bintz’s conviction, according to the exonerations registry.  

Life after exoneration

If the Bintz brothers receive compensation from the state, they have ideas for how to use it beyond paying for health care expenses. In late February,  Broadnax told the Examiner about the brothers’ plans.

They both want to own a home, she said. In an interview with the Examiner, David talked about helping others.“I’d help a couple people out that ain’t got nothing,” he said.

Robert wants to travel and see the world, and David wants to eat home-cooked food, Broadnax said. 

“The food was straight garbage,” David said of the food in prison. “Half [the] time, I didn’t eat the food. I just bought stuff off canteen if I could.”

David has been making cards, Broadnax said. He sends cards to about four to five incarcerated people, and also uses his cards and designs to help with the decor at Mountains of Hope, the nonprofit through which he found a place to stay. 

“That was my hobby,” David said. “When I knew I was getting out, he wanted me to leave all my art supplies behind. I said ‘No, I’m not leaving my stuff behind. I’m still going to do this when I get out.’”

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