More than 2,800 have been wrongly convicted in the US. Lawmakers and advocates want THEM PAID

(CNN) John Jerome White was 19 years old when a Georgia judge sentenced him to life plus 40 years in prison for breaking into a 74-year-old woman's home and raping her. Exonerated after DNA testing years later, he walked free in a state that does not have laws on the books to compensate the wrongfully convicted upon their release from prison.

"I was 48 when I got out. It was rough," said White, who's now 61. "If it hadn't been for my family and the people who donated their time to help me, I just don't know. ... A lot of things were difficult, and the state of Georgia did nothing to help me."

White, who wrongly served more than two decades behind bars, was exonerated in 2007 after the Georgia Innocence Project stepped in and had the hair samples that helped lead to his conviction retested. Another man was charged with the crime.

White is one of 2,810 men and women to date who have been wrongfully convicted of crimes in the United States, according to the National Registry of Exonerations. Now federal lawmakers are pushing to increase the federal statute for compensating exonerees, as the Innocence Project, along with innocence organizations across the country, advocates for a universal wrongful conviction compensation law.

Thirty-six states and Washington, DC, have laws on the books that offer compensation for exonerees, according to the Innocence Project. The federal standard to compensate those who are wrongfully convicted is a minimum of $50,000 per year of incarceration, plus an additional amount for each year spent on death row. The current federal statute, which was endorsed by then-President George W. Bush in 2004, also serves as a model for states to create their own laws to compensate exonerees. Of the 36 states with compensation laws, nine offer more than $50,000 per year -- including Washington, DC, which offers $200,000 per year, according to the Innocence Project.

Late last month, Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters of California introduced the Justice for Exonerees Act, which would amend the federal statute to increase the compensation amount to a minimum of $70,000 per year. Eighteen Democrats have signed on as co-sponsors of the bill, including Reps. Hank Johnson of Georgia and Earl Blumenauer of Oregon, both states without wrongful conviction compensation laws.

"While my legislation takes an important step forward, let me be clear that no amount of money could ever be enough to make up for the time and opportunities stolen from exonerees," Waters said in a news release.

Johnson said in a statement to CNN on Tuesday that he's proudly supporting the bill and "as a former defense attorney, I know that there are tens of thousands of Americans who are currently in prison for crimes they did not commit."

According to the National Registry of Exonerations, since 1989 there have been 291 wrongfully convicted men and women in the 14 states without such compensation laws. Of those, Pennsylvania accounts for 103 of the exonerees.