Man freed by DNA evidence to get $3.9M

[deadparrot]

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - A man who spent seven years in prison for rape before a DNA test exonerated him will get $3.9 million from the city, authorities said.

William Gregory, 59, claimed in a lawsuit that he was falsely arrested by officers in the Louisville Police Department, causing him to endure years of degradation behind bars.

Gregory was convicted in 1993 of raping one woman and attempting to rape another. He was released from prison in 2000 after DNA tests showed that hairs found at the rape scene could not have come from him.

In November, the state paid him $700,000 to settle his claims against a state forensic examiner who testified against him.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070209/ap_on_re_us/brf_dna_exoneration_settlement

[John Q. Citizen]

1. Good for him. Could you imagine? n/t

[genie_weenie]

2. Oops were sorry we used the gross power

of government to incarcerate you here let's steal 4 million in taxes and give it to you! Look how thoughtful we are...


Hmmm, looks like we're going to have to raise property taxes on louisville citizens again? Oh well WE are the government and can do no wrong!

[politicat]

3. And your alternative?

He's had 7 years stolen from his life by judicial and official misconduct. DNA evidence was available 10 years ago; if the courts and police didn't use it, then they are at fault. The police and courts are the agents of the public at large (and if we're not keeping them in check, that's OUR fault) and if they're misbehaving, then it's our job to vote the bums out and reform their processes.

He deserves compensation for the time taken from him and for the unreasonable deprivation he was subjected to as an innocent person incarcerated.

Sorry about your property taxes, but maybe now you have an incentive to reign in the police commissioner (or whatever governing body there is) and to legislate a requirement for DNA evidence when available. It's much cheaper to spend $1000 a suspect and exonerate 50% of them than to pay out multiple millions when the judicial system makes mistakes.

[Kelvin Mace]

4. Actually

the money will be paid by the city's insurance company, not the tax payers.

Of course, that will raise their premiums.

[SharonAnn]

5. Citizens voted for their government. Sounds like they need to vote them out.

The way it works is when people are voted into office, they have the powers of that office at their disposal.

Around here people keep wanting liberal, Democratic results but they keep voting in right-wing Republicans. I tell them that when they vote for the person they're voting for that person's policies but I can tell that some of them just don't "get it".

Maybe we need to keep explaining that.

[enki23]

7. consider it a market force

one whose invisible hand will help guide the local justice system toward greater efficiency in judging guilt and innocence of the accused. that should make it all feel better.

[wellst0nev0ter]

6. Two Guesses

On what the man's race is.

[Trillo]

8. I wonder how this payout equalizes

among similar convicts who DNA later determined were subject to unjust incarceration.

Are some people's unjust time in jail worth thousands of times more than others' unjust time?