How much is your life worth?

originally posted here.

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A judge on Monday freed a man who had been found guilty of raping and murdering a teenage girl in the 1980s. The man had confessed but recent DNA tests showed he couldn't have been the killer. Upon hearing his conviction was overturned after 17 years in prison, Eddie Joe Lloyd thrust his arms forward and gave an emphatic "Thank you."

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There are quite a few bugs in the justice system. This being one of them.. but when cases like these occur, how are we supposed to repay these people? Surely the state dosen't expect a simple appology to justify their mistake(s). You can't just take 17 years of some one's life and expect an appology to make it up. Unless that's your twisted idea of "justice"... This isn't the first case where something similar like this has happened. There's been hundreds of people who have spend 17-60+ years in jail for a crime that they didn't commit. What do you think 17 years of your life is worth?.. Could you even put a price on it?..

As far as I am concerned there is no absolute compensation for being imprisoned wrongfully.
Here
is a link to a case here where the government tried their best to compensate though.

It was quite the headlines here and I know members of the family and regardless of the amount of money he recieved, it doesn't make up for the years the family didn't have their father, brother, son. How could anything make up for it?

Well...17 years is LONG time. Hell even a shorter time would be extremely unfair if you're innocent. One way to compensate(if thats really possible) the person monetarily, could be to find out what he was making before incarceration, adjust that for inflation and raises and give it to the person. That should be a start....
I dont know Remote...you stumped me...
Me personally, I would like to have the judge removed from office, so he/she cant pull the same thing on some else. As well as lost wages, and be able to buy a house at prices from 17 years ago.

There's no price to compensate a such error.

If you have lost the majority of your existence in jail (or an important part), the money will not
re-give you this time. What importance will have this money if you have nothing really important to do with? You became old, you don't know your family, you forgot pleasures of life and you have probably lost the better moments to be happy.

And I don't speack of all the traumatisms. No, in fact, your life had been brocken forever, nothing can change it.

Now this is what one would call an 'impossible math problem'. Mahakaal is on the right track, but who is to say the person would have stayed in the same position for 17 years? What about compensation for missed opportunities, which has a value that cannot be quantified? I may draw flames here...but given the traumas, lost time with loved ones, lost opportunities, one should at the very least be 'set for life', and those who wrongfully imprisoned the person should face some sort of punishment themselves, although I could not even begin to imagine how that would be instituted. There should be accountability in some form though.

Just as a side note to this thread, the state of Illinois has suspended the death penalty, because (I think) 6 out of 13 of the inmates on death row there have been proven innocent because of DNA evidence. That puts a whole new angle on it to me. With the law of averages, if almost half of the inmates there were innocent, how many innocent men have been put to death?

Deb

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Originally posted here by debwalin
With the law of averages, if almost half of the inmates there were innocent, how many innocent men have been put to death?

Deb

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You beat me to it, Deb. I wont bore you with details of how the death penalty is barbaric and a return to the dark ages. I wont bore with details of how Lethal Injection is considered cruel and unusal punishment under International Law. All I'll do is leave you with this link.....

IMHO, DNA testing is definitely needed before sending someone to death row. No question. That's IMHO.

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You became old, you don't know your family, you forgot pleasures of life and you have probably lost the better moments to be happy.
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sounds allot like working for a living. the man and his family received 10 million it seems rather unfair for a life lost. but up until now, what have the alternatives been, not to put anyone on trial? These people, who are found innocent after being condemned, are the strongest argument yet for the abolition of the death penalty. What new discoveries in the future will free or convict others.

i hope nobody see this as an argument for mass DNA sampling

No, I don't see how anyone could see this as an excuse for mass DNA testing, but I do think that everyone in prison who could possibly benefit from DNA testing should have the opportunity to have it done. I think that it is a crime in itself to deny a person that right for any reason. There are those who would say that the gov't. shouldn't pay for DNA testing for some criminal, but they are damn sure paying for them to stay in prison the rest of their lives, innocent or guilty. So I think that DNA testing should be a requirement for all people who are tried for a crime where it is possible.

Deb

OK well you state in the original post this man confessed... Did he confess to a crime he did not commit? That seems really strange to me....but who am I ....

The problem is the entire system that needs to be revised.
As Paldie said, the man confessed! Well it most certain was a Lawyer agreement at the time to get reduction on penalty or avoid death.
It is a general problem, not only on USA!

Kitain.

i dont see how any one could put a price on 17 years for a crime he didnt commit sure he might live comfortable for the rest of his life on a cushy payout from the state *if thats the coure he pursues* but this man who police told him if he confessed it would help flush the real killer out ?? why did they say this KNOWING he was inoccent and still letting him be incarcersted for 17 year of his life for god sake he didnt see his children grow or his grandchildren be born from what i have read hes just glad to be out with his family and deb makes a very good point to if inmates are convinced they are innocent they should be allowed DNA tests ammediatly as deb said they are paying for them to be locked up why not take the risk of paying for a DNA test if they are innocent they will be set free and the goverment will have more money to spend because i know that here in the U.K it is quite costly to keep some 1 incarcerated just my 0.02p

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Originally posted here by paldie
OK well you state in the original post this man confessed... Did he confess to a crime he did not commit? That seems really strange to me....but who am I ....

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He confessed to get a lower sentence. I don't know if I would confess if I was innocent, to let everyone know my position, but I aggree that a DNA test should be done before giving someone the death sentence. Also, 6 of 13 people being innocent on death row is absolutely ludicrous. That's almost 50% of the people wrongfully accused! Berserk! They need to re-evaluate the situation there.

Firstly, you really don't like to see these kinds of mistakes. The only thing worse then someone killing/raping a person is the wrong person getting punished for it, whilst the guilty party gets off.

I would think that if this guy really is innocent, he pleaded guilty to reduce the penalty he would receive, as kitain has said. Who knows what would have happened if he pleaded not guilty. He might have got off, or he might have got the chair - you just don't know. But, if you plead guilty, I think there's a heavy load of evidence saying that you did it - whether it's true or not, there must have been something.

As for 17 years compensation - you can't really compensate for that can you? You have to try to find the best alternative to giving the guy his 17 years back, which obviously, you cannot do. I'd say there would be money involved, but what else? Once you take some life away from someone, you can't give it back. That's why, when judges/jurors put people behind bars, they have to be certain, without a doubt, that this person is guilty. Still, however, mistakes are made.

This is probably one reason that harsher penalties are not introduced to people who commit some crimes. I'd like to see people who commit murder/rape in jail for a long, long time - hopefully not getting out at all, but sometimes, this isn't the case. But you hope ones the verdict is made, it's not a mistake - but like I said, you can't really know for certain that this person done it.

Greg

DNA databasing is in full swing here as we speak. I am sure it is going to catch some bad guys and free others. What we need to understand that in the past 20 years the science of forensics has come ahead in leaps and bounds, and as a result the justice system has been turned on its head keeping up and admitting its prior failings. The evidence is only as good as it's interpretation by the experts on the day, and I mean "on the day", remembering some of these case pre-date exacting sciences like DNA etc ....

I have my DNA and fingerprints on records and I am certainly no criminal nor do I intend to commit any crime. For the conspiracy theorists out there I guess the fear of having your DNA planted at the scene of a crime might be worrying but I feel the pro's far outweight con's in this area, for instance the speedy identification of victims in cases such as 9/11, missing people and the like.

As for compenstation for the wrongfully convicted, the whole case needs to be looked at and scutinised carefully before awarding massive amounts of tax payers money. For instance if the person has been completely "fitted up", they deserve everything they can get, no arguement.

For someone who was involved in the crime, covered up for the real offender and DNA later proved they were "not guilty" of the crime they were charged with, well I guess it would have to be scaled somewhat, depending on how much "extra time" they served over what would have been the sentence for being an accessory, if in fact they deserve anything for allowing the real criminal to remain among us, un-punished and free to do it again.

Just my 0.02c worth.

General consensus is that 17 years is a long time, but in reality a few months is a long time for someone to be locked away, especially being that they are innocent of their convictions. Imagine what kinds of things have changed in 17 years. A man comes out and he has lost that span of time, everything is different on the outside and he is left to cope with the pain of adjusting to a world he hasn't seen in almost 20 years. There is no compensation for this and all one can do is hope that our courts improve and see that the innocent man is left alone. On the other hand, if a man is guilty, to hell with him, he should have thought about the consequences before committing his crimes. His punishment is having to adjust to life and I think that's much more difficult than spending time behind bars; a man doesn't have it so bad in prison when he receives 3 squares a day, his punishment comes at the end when he's released and has to readjust to a way of life that doesn't comply with his mindset anymore. But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong :)

why does every thing you haven’t thought about have to be conspiracy theory? The thing i have against DNA databasing is what this could do to us in the private sector, and don't think this would be confidential, large corps can query echelons database.

insurance companies will raise rates or even refuse insurance based on predispositions shown in DNA, even though it’s the same gene pool that’s made them enormously rich and powerful. the same would hold true for the job market, this or that might happen so we don't want to take the chance. is that conspiracy theory?

sorry about the rant

as far as technology goes were fairly new at it, we've made tremedous strides foward and these changes will affect our whole culture. It's very sad that these things have been allowed to happen in the past but we're looking at a new day in which even ambitious cops and DAs wont be able to railroad people to further their careers. this is something to be glad for.

I agree with Tedob on that...we do not know the thousand and one ramifications that await in the wings of possible DNA testing. Reminds me of the movie,"Gattaca"...scary. We have experienced a huge forward move in technology in the last 30 years, that we will not begin to fathom for quite a while. I saw something on MSNBC earlier today...something about DE(?) police trying to profile people who might possibly commit crimes in the future.....I'll try and find a link to it if I can.

Morning guys,
Well i can personally relate to the feelings relating to wrongfull imprisoment.About 7 years ago my nephew got imprisoned. He was in service of the murder and robbery unit in our police force stationed in Johannesburg.During a surprised visit to some shacks in a township during the early hours of the morning they entered one shack, and as they entered,the suspect pointed him with a firearm and was starting to shoot.He then returned fire and the guy got killed.When all of this got to court his backup guy turned state evidence.His backup then testified that he returned fire first which resulted in him spending nearly seven years in prison.

What is our justice system coming to?...
The only good thing that came out of this is that since his time in prison he became a very religuous person.His soul and body is shattered.He will never be the same person again.

His father and mother is so broken hearted that i dont know if forgiveness will ever come to mind.

Thanks for letting me share this with you.
regards
v/man

Tredob1

I am about to undergo training in the DNA collection/databasing field as it applies to law enforcement. (Oct/Nov) I will be pleased to report back - the safeguards and laws pertaining to the collection and use of the information collected, as it applies here.

I would like to think there will be extremely strict rules as to the use of this information.

Here the video taping of interviews became compulsory for indictable offence (felonies, I think you call them) to safe guard the individual against the practice described as "verballing", where uncorroborated admissions could be taken into evidence.

These taped interviews are only available to the investigating officers, the suspects legal team and the court, anyone caught with one of these tapes outside of this faces long jail terms and hefty fines, this includes other cops - I think DNA collected for a purely investigative purpose would be given the same protection - but will let you know in the course of time.
Regards,

PP

thank you Phat_Penguin that would be very interesting, and i have to remember that other countries have more respect for private information than we do here. this technology in the hands of law enforcement dosn't disturb me at all, but here it will go beyond that. it always does.

17 years! I don´t get how he could admit to the crime! I would never say I had done it, unless I actually had! He must have been facing some really hard punisment!