PALM BAY, Fla. -- William Dillon didn't have "clean hands" before he was sent to jail for 27 years for murder, so he is barred from compensation under Florida's new Wrongful Incarceration Act.

The 49-year-old Satellite Beach man must find a sponsor in the Florida Legislature to write a special claims bill for the 2010 session.

Dillon spent 27 years in prison for the murder of James Dvorak, but he was released last year, when a judge granted a new trial based on DNA evidence. He became a free man when the state decided not to prosecute again, Local 6 News partner Florida Today reported.

"It's a shame that a nonviolent drug conviction from when Mr. Dillon was 19 years old would bar him from being compensated under the new Victims of Wrongful Incarceration statute," attorney Melissa Montle of the Innocence Project of Florida said. "He now has to file a claims bill during a recession in order to be rightfully compensated for the 27 years he spent in prison for a crime he did not commit."

Prosecutors said a bloody T-shirt presented as evidence was worn by Dvorak's killer, but DNA testing last year showed Dillon had not worn the shirt.

The state's compensation bill would have paid him $50,000 a year for the time he was in prison -- or $1.35 million, if the drug conviction hadn't made him ineligible.

Dillon pleaded guilty to drunken driving and possession of a controlled substance in Seminole County in 1979. He was sentenced to three years of probation and fined $150.

Two years later, he was convicted of killing Dvorak and sentenced to life in prison.

Since his release, Dillon has worked at an auto parts store in Palm Bay and is looking for a second job.

"Until he is able to find representation and a sponsor, file the claims bill and get it passed, he will continue to struggle financially to meet his basic needs," Montle said. "His case is powerful proof that this statute needs to be revisited and the 'clean-hands' provision eliminated."

But Dillon said not qualifying for the provision might allow him to get more than $1.35 million.

"My attorneys said it could be a good thing," he said.

Wilton Dedge, a Brevard County man who spent 22 years in prison for a rape he didn't commit, won a $2 million settlement in 2005 from the Florida Legislature.

Lawmakers called the new compensation bill an "automatic trigger" to resolve these claims. It passed in 2008.