AUSTIN, Texas -- Texas will pay $3.4 million to a couple who were wrongfully imprisoned for more than two decades on prosecutors' claims that they sexually abused children as part of satanic rituals at a day care they operated. 
 
 Dan and Fran Keller learned Tuesday that they'll receive the payment from a state fund for the wrongly convicted, the Austin American-Statesman reported. 
 
 A judge in June approved a request from Travis County District Attorney Margaret Moore for a declaration of innocence for the Kellers. 
 
 "There was not enough evidence left," Moore said at the time, according to CBS affiliate KEYE. "We work every day to insure that the cases we bring are appropriately brought and that's all I can answer is for what we do now." 
 
 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. They were each sentenced to 48 years in prison. 
 
 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 appeals court ruled deemed the doctor's testimony to be false, and the doctor himself also recanted it. 
 
 Further bolstering the Kellers' case was an interview the alleged victim provided in 2013 in which she acknowledged having no memory of being abused, Moore said in June. 
 
 The determination of outright innocence made Dan Keller, 75, and Fran Keller, 67, each eligible for $80,000 in compensation for every year they were wrongfully imprisoned. They'll also receive a matching annuity that provides annual payments of 5 percent interest for as long as they're alive, according to the Statesman. 
 
 "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. 
 
 They'll look to buy a house, vehicle, health insurance and better hearing aids for Dan Keller. 
 
 Their attorney, Keith Hampton, was not available to comment Wednesday, but he previously told the Associated Press that notorious claims of abuse at other U.S. day care centers were part of a hysteria that began in the 1980s about secretive cults targeting children. 
 
 "Day care panic or the satanic panic began to occur and it reached a fever pitch around the time the Kellers were prosecuted," Hampton said. "And like most hysterias, it thereafter died away." ||||| Dan, Fran Keller were victims of ‘satanic panic’ that swept the nation in the early 1990s, their lawyer says. 
 
 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. 
 
 Shortly after receiving the news Tuesday, an ecstatic Fran Keller said they will no longer have to live on the brink of destitution, unable to find jobs at their ages and with their convictions, even if overturned by the state’s highest criminal court. 
 
 “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,” said Fran Keller, 67. 
 
 Their to-do list includes buying a house, vehicle, health insurance and better hearing aids for Dan Keller, 75. 
 
 The Kellers’ lawyer, Keith Hampton, said the couple will collect two checks totaling $3.44 million Wednesday at the state comptroller’s office, which administers the compensation fund. 
 
 “They’re happy, and I’m happy for them,” said Hampton, who worked for no charge in getting the Kellers released and declared innocent. 
 
 The Kellers received news of the payments as they stood outside the Williamson County Jail on Tuesday in support of Greg Kelley, who was to be released on bond. 
 
 READ: Greg Kelley is released on bond from jail after 3-year legal slog 
 
 Kelley, serving a 25-year sentence on a child sexual assault charge, has maintained his innocence and also is being represented by Hampton, who phoned the Kellers with news of the state payments while he was inside the jail arranging Kelley’s release. 
 
 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 Keller case made national news after three children accused them in 1991 of leading ghastly satanic rituals that supposedly included desecrated graves, videotaped orgies, dismembered babies and tortured pets. No evidence of such activities was discovered at their in-home day care facility, and the case against them collapsed about two decades later when the only physical evidence of abuse was acknowledged as a mistake by the examining physician. 
 
 Freed on signature bonds in 2013, the Kellers launched an effort to clear their names. 
 
 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 also were harmed, he argued, by the combined efforts of inept therapists, gullible police and an investigation that spiraled out of control, producing a suspect list of 26 ritual abusers, including many of the Kellers’ neighbors and a respected Austin police captain. 
 
 LIKE US ON FACEBOOK: Our Lone Star Politics page brings Capitol news to your Facebook feed 
 
 Children who reported no problems at the day care were ignored, and leading psychologists and criminology professors provided affidavits saying improper interview techniques and subtle encouragement by therapists produced believable-but-false memories in the children who accused the Kellers of abuse. 
 
 Taped interviews of a Keller accuser, a 3-year-old girl, made at the Travis County sheriff’s office have since been used in lectures by a top specialist in assessing and treating crime victims to illustrate common interviewing mistakes. 
 
 Travis County prosecutors, however, had pushed back, arguing that the Kellers failed to produce sufficient proof of innocence, such as an ironclad alibi or DNA evidence. 
 
 In 2015, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals split the difference, overturning the Kellers’ convictions but declining to declare the couple innocent. 
 
 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. 
 
 Now adults, several of the children who accused the Kellers opposed the move, according to Moore and family members. ||||| 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 Kellers are entitled to $80,000 for each year they were incarcerated. In the couple’s case, they were in prison for 23 years, which means each person will receive approximately $1.84 million for their time served. The Tim Cole Act states half of the money will be paid as a lump sum and the other half will be paid out over their lifetime as an annuity. 
 
 “They are now compensated and no longer must fear homelessness or lack of health insurance,” said Hampton in an email. “They are buying a home and can live out their lives in peace and quiet. I am very happy for them.” 
 
 The couple was accused of satanic and ritual abuse of children in their care in the early 90s. A jury found them guilty and sentenced them to 48 years in prison. In 2013, a court ruled they didn’t get a fair trial and released them. 
 
 In June of this year, Travis County District Attorney Margaret Moore formally dismissed the cases against them. According to the motion to dismiss, there is “no credible evidence” that the Kellers, now 75 and 67 respectively, committed the crimes they were accused of, including sexually abusing the children at their day care in 1991. 
 
 On the first day of Greg Kelley’s hearing earlier this month, the Kellers were in attendance to show their support. At his release on Tuesday, they too, were there again to meet him face-to-face for the first 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.