WP: MD pays for Man's 27 lost years in prison

[MountainLaurel]

That things like this can happen is the prime reason this country need to lose the death penalty.

The Maryland Board of Public Works approved a $1.4 million compensation package yesterday for Michael Austin, who spent almost 27 years in prison for a murder he did not commit.

"Today is a day to rejoice and to say this is all behind me," Austin said shortly after Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R), who has apologized to Austin, called him a man of "great dignity."

Austin was a 26-year-old iron factory worker when he was arrested in the 1974 murder of Roy Kellam, a security guard at a food store in Baltimore. Throughout his trial, conviction and prison term, Austin maintained his innocence. "I always believed I was going to get out," he said yesterday.

That happened in 2001, after Centurion Ministries, a New Jersey-based nonprofit group, took up Austin's case and found numerous problems with his trial, including prosecutorial misconduct and an ill-prepared defense attorney.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58841-2004Nov17.html

[ZenLefty]

1. That doesn't seem like a lot of money for 27 years.

Glad he's out, though.

[MountainLaurel]

3. No

But most inmates in this position get NOTHING. They're dumped out on the street in a new pair of jeans and a t-shirt and perhaps $100, lacking the skills to survive in a world that's completely transformed from when they entered prison.

[Wickerman]

5. about 39k a year

after an assumed 25% tax rate. Why 25%? Because I assume they would charge him sumthin' and 25% was round.

That ain't much.

[luaneryder]

2. No amount of money can

replace those lost years. I hope he can successfully put some of this behind him.

[sui generis]

4. it's not nearly enough.

If you were a billionaire and you kidnapped someone and held them hostage for 27 years, how much do you think you would be forced to pay that person? Probably a teensy bit more than 1.4 million dollars.

In the U.S. "freedom" is pretty central to being American. That guy's constitutional rights were violated in every conceivable way and his life was utterly and irretrievably stolen from him.

1.4 million dollars is chump change.

[petepillow]

6. And all he gets is 1.4 Mill? Damn, he deserves a free shot at

at everyone who was in on the conviction. Oh, and about 10 times that amount. The other examples mentioned in the article continue to make me even sicker. Unbelievable. If Paris Hilton gets to live the way she does for simply being a snide spoiled little genetic lottery winner, Michael Austin should get his own island in Hawaii.