Do You Get Anything If You're Falsely Imprisoned ?

[billt]

http://news.yahoo.com/tears-joy-va-family-man-pardoned-29-years-085303641.html

Like this guy was for 29 years. I know you get something, but I'm not sure if it's a set rate, or it depends on how long, where, and for what?

[tombogan03884]

It pays better than working.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2007/05/18_years_in_prison_priceless.html



On Wednesday, Connecticut lawmakers voted to award $5 million to a man who had served an 18-year prison sentence for a rape he didn't commit. How did they decide how much compensation he deserved?

They winged it. Only 21 states have compensation laws on the books, which spell out exactly how much you get for a wrongful conviction. Louisiana, for example, ponies up $15,000 for each year of incarceration, plus job training and help with college tuition. Alabama pays at least $50,000 a year, and California pays $100 per day. Meanwhile, the federal government forks over $50,000 for each year of incarceration for federal crimes, plus $50,000 for each year spent on death row.

In Connecticut, which is among the 29 states without compensation statutes, ex-prisoners must lobby the legislature to pass a private bill that grants compensation to a specific person. Here, the dollar amount loosely depends on what payments the state has made in the past. The number should account for the victim's lost time, lost wages, and physical and mental suffering, as well as the effects on his or her family. Private bills are behind some of the multimillion-dollar rewards that make the headlines, but the payouts don't always go off without a hitch. Florida, for instance, initially planned to award $1.25 million to Alan Crotzer for serving more than 24 years after being convicted of armed robbery and rape, but ultimately dropped the payment from its budget, instead giving $4.8 million to the parents of a teen who had died in juvie boot camp.

...............more at link.........................................

[Solus]

Wonder if it is taxable.   Feds give $50,000 per year...so 20 years would be $1M.   After taxes in CA, you end up with $518,875.18

http://www.taxformcalculator.com/tax/1000000.html

Interestingly, the annual payment for winning $1,000,000 in the lottery in Ohio was $50,000 per year for 20 years.....

So, getting sent away wrongly for 20 years is equivalent to winning the lottery for $1,000,000.

Given the choice, I'd take the lottery.

[tombogan03884]

Who say's "Crime doesn't pay" ?
Of course the tricky part is you have to be NOT GUILTY. (There was a case in Boston a few years ago where 3 known Mafia guys got put away on false testimony for a hit Whitey Bulger actually committed, They were not guilty, but they sure as hell weren't innocent.)

Actually after he got out of prison Frank James made a living lecturing that "Crime doesn't pay".
The Crime writer's association say it doesn't pay, ENOUGH. 

[billt]

I lot of these guys who are getting off from being falsely convicted, are doing so because modern forensics and DNA evidence now exists that didn't 20 or 30 years ago when they were found guilty. Sooner or later these people will either get off, or else die off.

Today the conviction rate is much more trustworthy, because of the evidence gathering capability of modern forensic driven police departments. I remember when Bob Crane of "Hogan's Hero's" fame was murdered here in Scottsdale back in the 70's. The guy who they know did it, was finally tried, but got off because the evidence was too old to apply modern DNA testing to. At the time of his murder the DNA evidence didn't exist.

So because of that a known murder walked until he died of natural causes some years later. If that murder happened today, he would have been convicted, and either received life without parole, or else the death penalty. Sadly, sometimes this works both ways.

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