Some Convicts Freed by DNA Not Compensated

[Judi Lynn]

Some Convicts Freed by DNA Not Compensated
By BRETT BARROUQUERE, Associated Press Writer

Monday, August 22, 2005
(08-22) 00:12 PDT Louisville, Ky. (AP) --

William Gregory still carries around the legal paperwork to prove he's not a rapist. Gregory served seven years behind bars before DNA tests five years ago showed he couldn't have committed the crime.

He left prison with only a garbage bag filled with clothes and a television — and doesn't have much more today because Kentucky isn't one of the 19 states that allow wrongfully convicted people to seek compensation.
(snip)

Of nearly 160 people freed from prison by DNA tests since 1989, 17 have been financially compensated by the states that locked them up. The federal government also has a compensation law.
(snip)

DNA tests were not available at the time, but became available in the late 1990s. With help from The Innocence Project, a nonprofit organization that pushes for DNA exoneration, Gregory successfully appealed to have the hairs tested. The tests showed the hairs could not have come from him.
(snip/...)


http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/08/22/national/a000530D75.DTL

[wli]

1. time for major lawsuits

Probably long overdue for protesting prisons en masse, e.g. protesting nonstop until all "war on drugs" prisoners are freed (Leonard Peltier, too) and prisonmandering eliminated. Given the ongoing fascist break this may be waiting quite a bit longer.

[Kelvin Mace]

11. Trouble is

there are laws on the books to prevent you from suing for this kind of situation.

[arwalden]

2. Have Any EXECUTED Convicts Been Proved Innocent?

Or do they pretty much destroy all the evidence after the deed has been done? Still... it would be interesting to know how many INNOCENT people have been executed.

[Judi Lynn]

4. Pretty sure I read about one executed man recently who was

posthumously proven innocent. Sure wish I had kept track of it.

I agree with you. It would appear they want records to stay closed on the ones they have killed "in error."

On edit:

Here's the story I read about recently. It was reported in various media:

Did Missouri execute an innocent man?
New information leads prosecutors reopen 1980 murder case

Updated: 7:41 p.m. ET July 12, 2005
ST. LOUIS - Citing grave concerns that Missouri executed an innocent man, a coalition that includes a congressman, high-profile lawyers and even the victim’s family pointed to evidence Tuesday that they said could clear Larry Griffin’s name.

Prosecutors have decided to reopen the case of Griffin, who was convicted in 1981 in the murder of Quintin Moss, a 19-year-old drug dealer who was shot to death. Griffin maintained his innocence to the end, but was put to death in 1995.
(snip)

“What I have heard recently is very troubling and leads me to believe an innocent man was executed for this murder, while the real killers have not been brought to justice,” said Rep. William Lacy Clay, D-Mo., who spoke at a news conference Tuesday with other supporters of Griffin.

Professor sheds new light on case
The news conference followed a report compiled by a University of Michigan Law School professor who discovered new information on the case in the last year. The report suggests that:

• The first police officer at the scene of the 1980 shooting, Michael Ruggeri, now says that the story told by the supposed eyewitness was false, even though Ruggeri’s own testimony at trial supported what the witness said.
  
• A second victim of the shooting, Wallace Conners, has said he was never contacted by the defense or the prosecution. Conners, now 52, who was wounded in the attack, said the supposed eyewitness was not present at the shooting.

“I tell all you all, Larry Griffin did not commit this crime,” Conners told reporters. “Larry Griffin definitely wasn’t in the car.”
(snip/...)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8556687/

Really sad, isn't it? No doubt there are so many more.

[SouthernDem2004]

5. None yet actually.

[acmavm]

3. Why is this article referring to these people as 'convicts' if they didn't

commit the crime they were incarcerate for? They strike me as being just another victim.

[Vasmosn]

6. Conviction...

doesn't equal guilty, which is what these cases show. Technically, they may always be "convicts." Or ex-cons, I guess. The fact that they were convicted in a court of law sort of makes it so. But it seems they should have some mechanism for removing that label for sure...

[robcon]

7. In order to sue, you have to find intent.

You can say the jury didn't do its duty, the prosecutor held back evidence, the defense did something stupid. But to collect damages, you have to have someone responsible for wrongdoing.

If the convicts were convicted in fair trials, there's no room for compensation, IMO.

[Mairead]

9. Not so. If Alice accidently runs over Bob in her car, Bob can sue

No intent to run him over need be alleged.

When someone is wrongly convicted, that's a guarantee that the police and/or the prosecution didn't do their job. When someone's life or liberty is at stake, the police and prosecution goal must always be the truth, not a conviction.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

10. If they had received a fair trial, they wouldn't have been convicted....

...in the first place. DNA testing is proving not only that these people were innocent of the crime for which they were convicted in the first place, but that the system that convicted them was faulty.

Too many people find themselves railroaded into prison based on either a rush to judgement, or dubious circumstantial evidence that could have placed anyone at the scene of any crime.

Legally, and morally, these people are owed something for the time that was taken from them. If you were one of those who had been wrongfully convicted of a crime I bet you would be singing a different tune.

"Fair trials"?? Yeah...right.

[BiggJawn]

8. "Here's the clothes you wore in here 30 years ago. Oh, Sorry about..."

"...all the anal sex and beatings that got forced on you, too...No hard feelings, OK?"

If I wasn't a sociopath when I went in, I would probably be when they let me out....