Nelson v. Colorado

In Nelson v. Colorado, petitioners Shannon Nelson and Louis Madden had their criminal convictions reversed or vacated after they had paid court costs, fees, and restitution. Colorado law required them to file a separate civil suit and prove their innocence by clear and convincing evidence to obtain a refund of those payments. They challenged the statutory scheme as a violation of the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The U.S. Supreme Court, in a majority opinion authored by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, held that once a conviction has been invalidated, the presumption of innocence is restored. The State may not retain funds exacted from a defendant solely on the basis of a now-void conviction without providing an adequate procedure. The Colorado requirement of an additional civil suit and proving innocence unconstitutionally shifted the burden to the exonerated.

The U.S. Supreme Court reversed the Colorado Supreme Court. It ruled that the Colorado scheme violated due process because once a conviction is reversed, the presumption of innocence is restored and the state cannot automatically retain funds that were exacted solely due to the now-invalid conviction. The state must provide a process that does not impose an unconstitutional burden on the exonerated.

Whether a state law requiring individuals whose criminal convictions have been overturned to prove their innocence by clear and convincing evidence in a separate civil proceeding, in order to obtain a refund of costs, fees, and restitution they were forced to pay, violates the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

The decision established that states cannot place new hurdles on exonerated individuals to recover money taken during a wrongful conviction. It prompted reform of restitution and court-cost refund procedures across the country, reaffirmed the constitutional rights of the presumed innocent, and reinforced safeguards against arbitrary government retention of property after a conviction has been nullified.