An exoneration ends a prison sentence. It does not, by itself, produce a dollar, a clean record, or an apology. This article explains what actually happens after a conviction is vacated. It covers the two separate routes to money: state compensation statutes, which are quick and capped and exist in only some states, and civil rights litigation, which is slow, uncapped, and faces immunity doctrines built to defeat it. It explains Heck v. Humphrey and why the sequence of vacatur matters, prosecutorial absolute immunity, qualified immunity, and why suing a city is harder than most people assume.