COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) – A state budgetary panel has approved transferring over $851,000 to compensate two Ohio men who say they were wrongfully imprisoned for 16 years in a Portage County woman’s 1988 slaying.

That covers a preliminary judgment for Randy Resh and Bob Gondor, who were entitled to payment for lost earnings under Ohio’s formula for monetary damages in wrongful-conviction cases. The Controlling Board on Monday approved the request for funding that the men will split.

Now in their early 50s, they’ve argued in court filings that they deserve more compensation for being deprived of building families and careers and suffering emotional distress.

A man who pleaded guilty in the murder implicated them as accomplices, but they’ve long argued they’re innocent. Charges were dropped against Gondor after Resh was acquitted in his retrial.

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