Harpstreith v. State

Claimant, Valentine Harpstreith, seeks $35,000 in damages as compensation for 20 years of imprisonment which he asserts were unjustly administered as a result of an erroneous conviction. The claim is invoked pursuant to Section 8(c) of the Court of Claims Act, Ch. 37, Ill. Rev. Stat., Sec. 439.8(c) which grants exclusive jurisdiction to this Court over claims against the State for time unjustly served in prison.

Valentine Harpstreith was convicted of the murder of one Julius Nungesser in the Circuit Court of St. Clair County in 1929, and was imprisoned from April, 1929, to July 2, 1949. On…