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374 Comments
- darkchild82, on 04/17/2008, -4/+248"misidentification by the victim" - way to ruin the innocent man's life!
- VcrMan, on 04/17/2008, -0/+163There's an excellent documentary on this very topic called "After Innocence" whcih follows, as I recall, about 20 guys who were released after DNA found them innocent. In the overwhelming number of cases the freed men do not receive any compensation (they've formed a lobby group to have legislation passed which would compensate the wrongly convicted). They also, by virtue of having been freed rather than paroled, do not qualify for any of the programs parolees qualify for to help with reintegration into society - everything from getting a job (including participation in programs whereby businesses get the convict's wage subsidized in exchange for employing a parolee), counseling, support groups, etc. They're simply shown to the gate, given the possessions they came in with and whatever money they earned while in prison (at $0.15/hour or some such rate).
Additionally, these innocent men face major obstacles reintegrating. In many cases the state inexplicably refuses to expunge their record. Others find great difficulty getting a job, as they cannot answer that they haven't been convicted of a felony in the past 10 years. One of the guys spoke about how strange the smell of the free world was - he'd been wrongfully imprisoned for 20+ years and, if I recall, spent 23 out of every 24 hours in solitary confinement and had only breathed filtered air in that time. He became allergic to _everything_ once he got out. He also only drove jeeps with canvas tops and doors as he couldn't stand the confinement of a fixed roof/solid doors. Many of these guys are shockingly forgiving of their fate, just wanting to move on.
In one particularly stirring scene, the woman who mistakenly identified a man who raped her (a man who subsequently spent, I think, 11 years in prison before he was able to prove conclusively via DNA he couldn't have been the person who did it) becomes friends with the man, who harbours no ill-will toward her.
In another scene, the DNA tests find a woman who alleged rape against a man who had served, I think it was 7, years in prison shows the woman had the semen of 4 different men inside her, none of which were the convicted man's. The prosecutors nonetheless do everything in their power to keep the guy from being freed.
There's also a cop who was accused of some crime, who had complete faith in the system, gave a statement, thought the whole thing would blow over, but ended up convicted and spent 7 or 8 years in prison. I wouldn't think he'd be too welcome there.
Several other men spent years (23, in one case) on death row before DNA evidence proved them innocent. I cannot imagine how one gets through that with sanity intact.
It's been demonstrated over and over again that the worst form of evidence is eyewitness identification, and the courts need to revisit the weight put upon such evidence. - maxtangent, on 04/17/2008, -5/+125This certainly begs the question about how many innocents have been given the death penalty.
- degron, on 04/17/2008, -0/+101This man should never have to work. He paid a debt to society that he didn't owe so now society owes him. This could have been a successful person in life but all that was stripped away from him by our faulty system. 23 years in prison is almost a lifetime and he should be compensated for that life that was lost.
- jflowers45, on 04/17/2008, -1/+90What do governments do for compensation in these cases?
- SpectralSounds, on 04/17/2008, -2/+83$25,000 per year of incarceration, to a maximum total of $500,000, plus one year of counseling.
Tex. Stat. Ann. ยงยง103.001-103.002; 103.051-103.052 - JMartin13, on 04/17/2008, -3/+75Happens all the time, however DNA has made witness identification less important. This is one of the main reasons why we should get rid of the death penalty. If you put them to death, there is no going back.
- coheedcollapse, on 04/17/2008, -3/+65That's what scares me about accusations of rape. Many times, the guy is guilty before proven innocent (which, by the way, seems hard to do). Whenever I hear about rape charges on my campus, the guys are immediately picked up with no questions asked. They even proposed a law that allowed a woman to press rape charges if she were intoxicated even if the man was intoxicated as well. Seems a bit sexist.
No doubt about it, some guys are trash and rape is a very serious offense, it just worries me how easy it is to lock up a guy with no proof other than "he had sex with that woman and she says now that it was unwanted".
I'll stay away from one night stands, thank you very much, and stick with my lady. That's the best way to not have to worry about that sort of crap. - cphelps, on 04/17/2008, -0/+53It should be 50-100k a year with no cap on how much you can get. You served the years for no reason, you should be compensated for everyone of them properly. Plus they should buy you a home and vehicle before giving you all of that money and exclude you from paying taxes for forever.
- DeskFlyer, on 04/17/2008, -1/+52Enhance.
- TheSwashbuckler, on 04/17/2008, -0/+44Eyewitness testimony is notoriously inaccurate...
- sparql, on 04/17/2008, -0/+42I don't think it sounds like a lot at all. Considering the man has been in prison for so long he has no marketable skills for the workforce, no established credit for a home or loans, missed the time in his life when he could have started a family.. etc. Not to mention, even though he is innocent he faces great hardships. When he fills out a job application and has a 23 year gap of employment, the first thing he is going to be asked is "what did you do for those 23 years?"
- ennTOXX, on 04/17/2008, -7/+48Thank God for CSI these days... :||
- madeingermany, on 04/17/2008, -2/+41While that sounds like a lot, it isn't too that much compared to how much they ruined his life.
And I'm trying hard to not go into the usual prison jokes. - zephyr42, on 04/17/2008, -0/+39I'm a Texan and I approve this message.
If I were a dallas county resident I would be happy to pay $.05 more in tax if people like this were rightly compensated for their loss :-( - securitymonkey, on 04/17/2008, -0/+38Wait until he sees the price of gas.
- inactive, on 04/17/2008, -2/+39'Lawyers say he was convicted largely on eyewitness misidentification by the victim.' i bet he's black.
- inactive, on 04/17/2008, -4/+40This is why I am totally against the death penalty.
- klipseracer, on 04/17/2008, -3/+39MIs-identifying a person can be an honest mistake. Providing false testimony means they did it intentionally. There is no happy ending or even beginning for this person. Because life's a bitch. So ***** the RIAA.
- DeskFlyer, on 04/17/2008, -6/+41So....will there be any repercussions for the person who provided false testimony under oath?
- JMartin13, on 04/17/2008, -0/+34The Innocence Project has exonerated 215 people through DNA evidence, including 16 people off death row. And, they only have the resources to skim the surface of the entire prison population.
- surKaz, on 04/17/2008, -5/+37Exactly.... Well, at least he got out... now the victim's really screwed..
- mithrasinvictus, on 04/17/2008, -0/+32Deliberate false accusations should bear the same penalty as the alleged crime.
- zephyr42, on 04/17/2008, -3/+33You know.... since he's been in prison guess what happened???
THE INTERNET! - Ihatepolitics, on 04/17/2008, -1/+30yeah someone should rick roll him.
- kingmanic, on 04/17/2008, -0/+29Stardenko: Half a million buys you a house and you can live for a few years. What does he have after that? Like Sparql said, he'd got no marketable skills. He's old and it's likely DESTROYED his relationships with almost everyone he knew. So that half million isn't going to buy back a reasonable life. It's hardly enough to rent a semblance of a life.
- Aensland, on 04/17/2008, -1/+29That's horrible. I saw the documentary about that cop too, a while back. Since there aren't that many of these guys, I think they deserve some form of compensation. Hell with it, you can't give back 20 years of a man's life... and as for the parole system not being able to help them, that's ***** too. If the feds can set people up with new lives a la Witness Protection then these guys should get a chance as well.
- kingUssop, on 04/17/2008, -1/+29Relatively little considering they stole the man's life and locked him up with animals.
- kirralin23, on 04/17/2008, -1/+28Insufficient.
- Gauthic, on 07/09/2008, -2/+29The problem is this (no judgment of the falsely convicted):
When a man is locked up with animals he has to become an animal himself to survive. How does a n innocent man locked with sociopaths, murderers, thieves and rapists cope and survive for 23 years? He becomes a victim (who usually doesn't last 23 years) or becomes a predator.
It's not my call, but with the changes of society over the last 23 years (I was only 11 or 12 when he was convicted) has he kept up with the outside world? Did he have the wits or enough hope enough to even try to keep up with the changes in technology and society?
500k (see SpectralSounds' post TSA) isn't enough, but at least it's a retirement.
There is at least one good thing that come of this though:
Since he was incarcerated, he'll feel at home with the rights that we've lost in the last two decades - inactive, on 04/17/2008, -0/+26if you can get tens of millions of dollars from merck for taking vioxx, this guy should be getting at least 100 million.
- julanrouge, on 04/17/2008, -2/+28i used to work at the innocence project back in law school (the non-profit that handled this case) and they do awesome work. amazingly 50% of our cases that make it to DNA testing stage are exonerations....what does that say about our criminal justice system>
- ironrex, on 04/17/2008, -2/+26Now she's a victim again - this time of gut wrenching guilt.
- MojoJonJon, on 04/17/2008, -1/+2423 years of lost time is unforgivable and no amount of compensation could ever equal that time. I'm always scared this could happen to me while i'm just sitting at my house minding my own business.
- br0wnstar, on 04/17/2008, -1/+24Wonder if he was black? Serious question.
- TheUngod, on 04/17/2008, -5/+27Whether they're dead or spent 23 years in jail, theres no going back either way. If you ask most prisoners if they would prefer long term prison or death, I'm guessing you'd be surprised at the answers they gave you.
- AndyStitzer, on 04/17/2008, -0/+21They usually give X amount of dollars per day the person was in jail
- bassman12593, on 04/17/2008, -1/+22*wishing digg had a ***** idiot button*
- inactive, on 04/17/2008, -0/+21http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?scid=4 ...
many people on death row have turned-out to be innocent and have been released. but they don't try to investigate any futher after their execution because it "costs too much" (also so it doesn't make them look bad). there is no definitive proof that any innocent people have been executed, but over 100 people on death row have been found innocent since 1973. so there is a high probability that a number of people that were executed were actually innocent. - maxtangent, on 04/17/2008, -0/+21Not only have their lives been trashed, the real perpetrators got off scott-free.
Talk about a double tragedy. - pentupentropy, on 04/17/2008, -2/+23Sometimes victims of false imprisonment get something for it but many times they get nothing. It depends on the circumstances and whether the judge/jury deciding it thinks he got a fair trial. DNA evidence didn't exist a long time ago, so it's hard to say what will happen in a lot of cases.
- Eezyville, on 04/17/2008, -2/+23What about that woman that incarcerated him? I wonder how she feels. She should give him a home since she got 23yrs of his life taken.
- Aensland, on 04/17/2008, -0/+21I don't think a simple "sorry, good luck" is sufficient. 23 years out of society, let alone incarcerated in prison, pretty much leaves you with no recourse except manual labour or other similarly dead-ended jobs, unless he gets really lucky.
- Dweller99, on 04/17/2008, -3/+24Yeah I wonder where the "death penalty for sex crimes!" people are now.
- shadesofred, on 04/17/2008, -4/+24No, we shouldn't totally fault the rape victim. Yes, she shouldn't have said she was certain he was the guy, but the thing is, she probably thought he was. In another story, it said the police officer interviewing her used "leading questions" and pressured her to identify someone. She was upset and confused, and she wanted the ordeal to be over, and when police officers handle perpetrator-identification like that, a lot of false identifications happen. As another poster mentioned, eyewitness identification is notoriously innaccurate and unreliable. Sad for everyone involved. Hopefully as time goes on, we'll rely less and less on eyewitness identification in cases that don't require it. I'm sure the poor woman feels awful about this, and now she knows that the real rapist is probably still out there.
- tange1, on 04/17/2008, -0/+20http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localne ... Yep...
- soomprimal, on 04/17/2008, -4/+24No, because DNA evidence can be tampered with by humans. As long as humans or human-made machines (which is everything) are involved in the process, nothing is 100%. But DNA is better than before.
- MortalynFlux, on 04/17/2008, -6/+24Before you blame the victim, you have to understand the psychological circumstance she was in and the amount of trust she put in authority, who were more than likely the ones who pushed this particular suspect. There are many ways you can lead a witness to identify a particular suspect in the lineup and on the witness stand without actually saying it.
- floridiot2, on 04/17/2008, -2/+19Can he vote now? Can he buy a gun now? Is he going to be labeled as an ex-con? a felon?
- kirralin23, on 04/17/2008, -1/+16I have a great deal of sympathy for the rape victim as well as the prison victim. At this point she is either horrified by her mistake or she doesn't believe the DNA evidence and believes the man who attacked her has been set free. It seems extremely unlikely that she purposely identified the wrong man. If, on the other hand, there was bad blood between her and the accused, if she somehow target him when she knew he was innocent, she is the one who belongs in prison.
This man very likely will receive no compensation. Even if he is compensated in some way I'm sure it can't be enough to make up for what he lost.
As others have said this is why I don't believe in the death penalty. Once a life has been taken it cannot be returned. I don't think the death penalty can be administered in such a way as to ensure no innocent people are executed. I also don't believe it can be administered fairly. Rich people get off because they can afford top lawyers. My third objection is I believe the spiritual damage done to the individual who performs the execution is horrendous and unjustifiable. I believe it decreases the humanity of all involved. I don't object on the grounds of taking someone Else's life being unjustifiable; but just because you can justify an action doesn't been you should carry out said action. -
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