Dan and Fran Keller, who spent more than 21 years in prison after they were accused of sexually abusing children during supposed satanic rituals at their South Austin day care facility, will receive $3.4 million from a state fund for those wrongly convicted of crimes. “This means we don’t have to worry about pinching pennies on Social Security, and late bills. It means we will actually be free. We can start living -- and no more nightmares," Fran Keller told the newspaper. Their to-do list includes buying a house, vehicle, health insurance and better hearing aids for Dan Keller, 75.  AUSTIN (KXAN) — As attorney Keith Hampton was working to get his client Greg Kelley out of jail on Tuesday, he was also signing off on the compensation package for his other clients, Dan and Fran Keller, who were recently declared innocent in their case. The state’s wrongful conviction compensation fund pays $80,000 for each year in prison, plus a matching annuity that provides annual payments of 5 percent interest as long as the recipient is alive and isn’t convicted of a felony. The couple was convicted in 1992 of sexually assaulting a 3-year-old after children at the day care the Kellers operated out of their Austin home told investigators of dismembered babies, tortured pets and other fantastic tales. Hampton argued that the Kellers were the victims of “satanic panic” — a belief that swept the nation in the early 1990s that a national network of secretive cults was preying upon day care children for sex and other horrors. The Kellers were freed in 2013 after the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals found a doctor was mistaken in determining there was physical evidence of assault. The couple’s circumstances changed in June, when Travis County District Attorney Margaret Moore filed court documents that dropped all charges and declared the Kellers “actually innocent” under the law. After an extensive review, it was clear that the Kellers’ innocence claim should be supported in the interest of justice, Moore said at the time.
– Dan and Fran Keller will receive $3.4 million from the state of Texas after being wrongly convicted of sexually abusing children during satanic rituals at their daycare and spending more than 21 years in prison, the Austin American-Statesman reports. According to CBS News, the Kellers were convicted in 1992 of sexually assaulting a 3-year-old girl and sentenced to 48 years in prison. They were released in 2013, had their convictions overturned in 2015, and were declared innocent in the eyes of the law in June. Since being released from prison, Fran Keller says it has been difficult to find work because of their ages—67 and 75—and wrongful imprisonment. “This means we don’t have to worry about pinching pennies ... and late bills," she says of the $3.4 million. "It means we will actually be free. We can start living." The Kellers found out they were receiving the money from a state fund for the wrongly convicted Tuesday and picked up their checks Wednesday. “They are now compensated and no longer must fear homelessness or lack of health insurance,” lawyer Keith Hampton tells KXAN. “They are buying a home and can live out their lives in peace and quiet." The Kellers were accused by three children in 1991 of dismembering babies, torturing pets, and holding orgies at their daycare. The case against them fell apart two decades later when the doctor who found the only piece of physical evidence of abuse admitted it was the result of a mistake and recanted. The alleged victim also admitted she had no actual memory of being abused. Hampton says the couple fell victim to the "satanic panic" of the early 1990s.