Is this Justice?

[+OverSword]

A decade after being exonerated of a crime that he had spent 30 years in prison for, a man is finally receiving the maximum allowed in the state of Tennessee for false imprisonment.  1 million dollars.    So divided by the time spent in prison plus the decade it took for the decision to pay him the money it adds up to about 25,000 and year.  His first lump payment of about a third of that money is all going towards legal fees.

From the article

Quote

 

After spending over three decades in prison for a crime he did not commit, Lawrence McKinney was cleared of the charges in 2008 after DNA evidence was tested.

It took another year for the government to release him from custody. They sent Lawrence out into a world he didn’t know. But they didn’t let him leave empty-handed. The government gave Lawrence McKinney $75.

Seventy-five-dollars to start a new life after being wrongfully caged by government prosecutors all those years ago.

What can you do when it takes thousands of dollars to even hire a lawyer for the slim chance of seeking a “redress of grievances” against, in this case, the state of Tennessee?

 

Source

[Piney]

Is this actually justice in the world?

because last time I checked thieves and liars prosper.......

[+and-then]

Someone in Tennessee should start a Go Fund Me for him and see how helpful the people there will be to someone enslaved in their name for so long.  My guess is that the amount collected just might surprise many.  

[preacherman76]

That is horrible. I’d say someone should get a million bucks for every year they were wrongfully caged. Especially if it’s proven that they were intentionally given a unfair trial. 

ETA and it should be handed over within 30 days of their release. 

Edited June 13, 2018 by preacherman76

[psyche101]

Of the cases they have taken on, The Griffith Innocence project has overturned 75% of the cases based on DNA evidence where eyewitness testimony was the key factor in jailing those people wrongly in the first instance. 

In 50% of the cases  the real perpetrator has been brought to justice. 

[Aquila King]

1 hour ago, psyche101 said:

Of the cases they have taken on, The Griffith Innocence project has overturned 75% of the cases based on DNA evidence where eyewitness testimony was the key factor in jailing those people wrongly in the first instance. 

In 50% of the cases  the real perpetrator has been brought to justice. 

This goes into a controversial topic, but just to add to your point here: 1 out of 25 people executed in the US are later found innocent.

I know that I'm in the minority here, even amongst many fellow progressives, but it's figures like this ^ and cases like the OP that cause me to oppose the death penalty.

[KingTomis]

I'm not opposed to the death penalty but I am opposed to ****ty courts and prosecutors that put innocent men in jail.  There should be a higher court if the death penalty is involved and the conviction should be without question and beyond dispute.  But then again you would think that would be the case when sending someone to jail for these rest of their life.

 

I remember an AMA these guys did a few weeks ago and they said their high percentage of overturned cases is due to the amount of work they do vetting these cases before taking them on.

[psyche101]

1 hour ago, Aquila King said:

This goes into a controversial topic, but just to add to your point here: 1 out of 25 people executed in the US are later found innocent.

I know that I'm in the minority here, even amongst many fellow progressives, but it's figures like this ^ and cases like the OP that cause me to oppose the death penalty.

I agree. Its quite a difficult subject to make sense of ethically. 

[Aquila King]

35 minutes ago, psyche101 said:

I agree. Its quite a difficult subject to make sense of ethically. 

Whether you think some criminals are so bad they deserve to die or not, what it comes down to is the statistical fact that sometimes we kill the wrong people.

So the question really is whether or not we're okay with state-sanctioned murder of innocent people.

[psyche101]

19 minutes ago, Aquila King said:

Whether you think some criminals are so bad they deserve to die or not, what it comes down to is the statistical fact that sometimes we kill the wrong people.

So the question really is whether or not we're okay with state-sanctioned murder of innocent people.

It seems to me that having to live in isolation thinking about what one has done might well be a justified punishment. With death it's over and done with, with time there's room for reflection. Its possible to my mind at least, that such is more fitting to the crimes committed. 

[Aquila King]

15 minutes ago, psyche101 said:

It seems to me that having to live in isolation thinking about what one has done might well be a justified punishment. With death it's over and done with, with time there's room for reflection. Its possible to my mind at least, that such is more fitting to the crimes committed. 

[+and-then]

I appreciate the sentiments about the death penalty but this guy wasn't on death row, thankfully.  He had his life stolen from him in a more insidious, painful way.  Hopefully, DNA collected at crime scenes can be matched to any persons in future convictions to help eliminate such tragedies.

[Still Waters]

I don't know how the law works in the US but they need to compensate the guy more for all the years he was locked up. They owe him big time, the least they can do is waver his legal fees.

Quote

And yet somehow Lawrence McKinney has remained positive. He said all he wanted was to clear his name. The money, he says, is just a nice extra so that he doesn’t have to work so hard at his age–after slaving away for 31 years in a Tennessee prison.

Good luck to the guy in his new life of freedom. All those years wasted locked up for something he didn't do, how horrible for him and others like him. His case isn't unique by any means.

[+OverSword]

14 hours ago, Aquila King said:

This goes into a controversial topic, but just to add to your point here: 1 out of 25 people executed in the US are later found innocent.

I know that I'm in the minority here, even amongst many fellow progressives, but it's figures like this ^ and cases like the OP that cause me to oppose the death penalty.

I oppose the death penalty because such a hugely flawed bureaucracy as the government should not have the power of life and death over people.  They can't even balance a budget for crying out loud.

[+OverSword]

4 hours ago, Still Waters said:

I don't know how the law works in the US but they need to compensate the guy more for all the years he was locked up. They owe him big time, the least they can do is waver his legal fees.

If it had been a federal case then perhaps the compensation he could seek would be theoretically limitless, but this was a state conviction and the state of Tennessee has a one million dollar limitation on the compensation allowed individuals for false imprisonment by state law.  IMO that needs to be addressed.