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Over the past decade the state has released dozens of men and paid them millions of dollars for locking them up for crimes they didn’t committee.

Today the state supreme court began efforts to avoid the locking up of innocent people. The Florida Innocence Commission is made up of judges, lawyers, police officers, lawmakers, and people who were wrongfully convicted. Chief Supreme Court Justice Charles Canady says the goal is to make sure not one person is locked up for a crime they didn’t commit.

“It is a bad problem if one innocent person is wrongfully convicted. I think we have to look at it in those terms. It is true that the number of wrongful convictions are relatively small compared to the large number of convictions, but that should not distract us from the reality that even one wrongful conviction we should strive to avoid,” said Canady.

The commission will meet periodically over the next 15 months, with the hopes of coming up with legislative fixes to the problem. Statistics show young, poor and black men are the most likely to be convicted of a crime they didn’t commit.