THE SAN FRANCISCO Police Department and District Attorney's Office took 14 years of their lives away from John J. Tennison and Antoine Goff. Now the state attorney general, Bill Lockyer, is trying to deny the two men the compensation they're legally due for their wrongful imprisonment. That's an outrage, and San Francisco authorities, starting with D.A. Kamala Harris, should fight vigorously to help Tennison and Goff get the relatively modest amount of money the state so clearly owes them.

As A.C. Thompson first reported in the Bay Guardian more than three years ago (see "The Hardest Time," 1/17/01), two San Francisco cops, Earl Sanders and Napolean Hendrix, arrested Tennison and Goff for the murder of Roderick "Cooley" Shannon and, with the help of deputy D.A. George Butterworth, kept from defense lawyers crucial information that could have cleared them. Among other things, Thompson noted in his investigative report, another person had confessed to the crime – and one of the prosecution's key witnesses later recanted her statements.

Still, the young African American men were found guilty, sentenced to life in prison, and stuck there, in a living hell – until two top-rate criminal defense lawyers, Ethan Balogh and Elliot Peters, read Thompson's story and decided to take on the case. After putting hundreds of pro bono hours into the case, they convinced federal judge Claudia Wilkens to order the men freed. They were later found factually innocent by a local judge – in effect, fully and legally clearing their names.

Under state law, an innocent person who is mistakenly forced to serve prison time is eligible for $100 a day of his or her sentence in compensation. Tennison is asking for $498,400, Goff for $489,000.

But now, according to an Aug. 29 story by Seth Rosenfeld in the San Francisco Chronicle, Lockyer is challenging the claim, insisting that they're guilty (despite a clear court ruling on the issue) and forcing them to appear at yet another legal hearing to prove their innocence. That's no way for a Democratic attorney general who claims to be something of a liberal to act, and no way to promote his all-but-announced campaign for governor, and the many, many progressive local lawyers who helped fund his A.G. campaign and who would form the base of his gubernatorial effort should tell him so, in no uncertain terms.

But San Francisco law-enforcement agencies put Tennison and Goff in this situation, and those same agencies should help get them out. Harris should publicly call on Lockyer to drop his opposition to the compensation, and if necessary, should appear at the hearing on behalf of the city to support the two men's case. So should police chief Heather Fong. A letter from the Board of Supervisors wouldn't hurt, either.

It remains a disgrace that the people who were most responsible for putting two innocent men in prison – Sanders, Hendrix, and Butterworth – have never been held accountable for their actions. The least the city can do is help keep Tennison and Goff from getting screwed by the legal system yet again.