nytimes.com/2011/03/30/us/30scotus.html?_r=2
Long story short.
Guy spends 18 years in prison (death row) for a crime he did not commit.
Jury awards 14 million cause the prosecutors office had evidence that could have freed him.
Supreme court dismisses it 5:4
What say you?
It is better that the system unambiguously err on the side of ensuring that prosecutors turn over to the defense any evidence that might exonerate an innocent person than that it protect the prosecutors. I do not agree that the only issue is whether the policy maker for the district attorney’s office was deliberately indifferent to the need to train the attorneys under his authority. Just as a company should be liable for the wrongdoings of its employees in the execution of their job responsibilities for that company, including not only willful misdeeds but also negligence, a DA’s office (and the police) should be liable for the wrongdoings of employees in the execution of justice, including negligence on the employees’ part as well as negligence by the office in properly training them. The individual employees should also be liable for their wrongdoings, whether negligent or willful. Negligence should be punished financially and with loss of job. Willful abuse should be punished with the same plus jail terms. Only these standards will prevent the kind of abuse and personal tragedy seen in this case.
[quote=“heimuoshu”]http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/30/us/30scotus.html?_r=2
Long story short.
Guy spends 18 years in prison (death row) for a crime he did not commit.
Jury awards 14 million cause the prosecutors office had evidence that could have freed him.
Supreme court dismisses it 5:4
What say you?[/quote]
I strongly believe that there should be sizeable compensation for wrongful conviction. It would discourage abuse of the justice system, and result in fewer innocent people going to jail.
He should get very sizable compensation. 18 years behind bars is long time.
What is troubling is the other case of the air force person who was 21 when he was executed for murdering a little girl. He didnt do it ! His family is to be awared 30 million nt. Wont do him any good though. This is troubling about a wrongful execution.
What is more troubling is the one that actually has been linked with DNA to the crime is not going to get a life sentence . I guess the death sentence is out nowadays in Taiwan. And probably because of wrongful execution such as what had happened. But this guy should never be let out of jail. He only got something like 18 years as well. Plus he may have been involved in killing other little girls. Some unsolved cases remain unsolved and possibly linked to him.
I think its ok to keep him behind bars. But its not ok to EVER let him out. Because if he has killed a little girl and perhaps a few more. He would likely do it again.
Reform for many criminals who commit very serious crimes is more often then not, impossible.
The State owes the poor guy big time.
It’s interesting to see how much the ‘Justice System’ has become a gladiatorial system where lawyers duel using the legal code.
Truth, justice and the ‘American Way’ just don’t exist anymore.
It sounds, though, like the reasoning was that the person he sued was not to blame. The misconduct was by a ‘rogue prosecutor’, not be the guy who was in charge of the department - and how much training should a lawyer who has gone through law school in the States and passed the bar exam really need to know that you are supposed to hand over all evidence to the defense? Hell, even I know that.
It seems in Canada that if someone is wrongfully convicted and locked up for a number of years, the government will pay up - even in cases where yes, they convicted an innocent man, but actually there was no misconduct - no one deliberately withheld exculpatory evidence, no one was railroaded, it was just a mistake. This system seems fairer to me.
The other consideration is that in this case there is a high likelihood that the guy wrongfully convicted of the armed robbery was actually guilty of other crimes, so the judges didn’t care that much. They can’t state that is their reasoning, but I detected an undercurrent of this type of thinking.
What concerns me a little is that Connick (Yes HArry Connick jnr.'s father) has had a few of these cases against him. As it stands, this guy spent 18 years in prison, prosecuted by a system he probably voted for and trusted, and now he is not allowed to receive any compensation for their (its) gross miscarriage of justice.
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