From grabbing your ankles to model citizen overnight...
Ayy yo,
I was perusing the news on the internet today trying to get my day started when I came across this revelation:
Man wrongfully imprisoned for decades happy to start relearning life
The first thing I thought before reading any further was - "I'll bet he's black..." Sure enough he was. 
The next thing I thought as I read on was I'll bet he was freed via DNA evidence. Sure enough he was. 
Finally, I thought before taking the piece really seriously was - "I'll bet he and his lawyer are asking for millions of dollars in restitution..." Well hell! 
I must be psychic:
Mr. James Bain has been living with his mother in Tampa upon being released from prison after serving 35 years, wrongfully accused of raping a 9-year-old boy back in 1974. He's been paid to speak in a couple of places, money that will help tide him over until his big payday. He and his attorneys have filed with the state of Florida for the restitution that Bain is entitled to -- $50,000 for every year he spent behind bars, for a total of $1.75 million. That's a lot of money to most of us, but not nearly enough to make up for 35 years, Bain said.
"Not even if they gave me $100 million," he said. "Even if they gave me that, it still wouldn't replace what I lost."
He's right ya know. How can you replace what he's lost? 
Where do you start? I wonder how they arrived at that monetary amount. How can you put a price on what that man has been through for over 3 decades of his life because several people (jury) lied on him? Oh so, now the state throws a few sheckels and coins at him and then says, "Our bad, Son. We fugged up, Yo. Here ya go. Playa. Now get over it." Nah that doesn't seem quite fair to me. What say you BAF? Holla atcha boy. 
What exactly could ANYONE provide to replace 35 years?
Me personally - I think you're being a pain in the ass - you know good and damn well there's nothing on this EARTH that can replace time. At least homie doesn't have to go on the job grind - he can at least live in a decent place with decent things for the remainder of his life. What about the steel plant worker who has no pension after 35 years of working everyday? What should be done for him? THAT ain't fair either.
Feel free to list all your recommendations for righting the injustices of the world, since you are so on top of it.........
I love light reading, so I'll be waiting!!!!! 
Thank you for your heartfelt assessment of my post and analytical commentary. I revel in it like a pig as the mud that has been slung at me.What exactly could ANYONE provide to replace 35 years?
Absolutely nothing. That's my point.
Now as for the steel plant worker who has humped it out for 35 years and have no pension to fall back on, I can only offer what Big Business is currently offering us in IT, Business Development, and those of us that hold positions in the corporate sector whose jobs are being outsourced to India, Prague, and China by the boatload - You should've chosen a different line of work.
but for real though why you wanna ask trick questions. Although money cannot pay me for years of my life the amount they are asking for is waaaaaaaaaay to low. Once the attorney get's his/her cut the bother is not left with much.
Change is a Process Not an Event
I had my phasers set on stun when they should have stayed in my holster. What can I say I'm a trigga-happy ninja. ...amount they are asking for is waaaaaaaaaay to low...
Exactly.
I agree.That's one of the points that I was trying to make with my post. After the lawyers get at his loot, Federal and State taxes take a big swipe, shady family members come crawling out of the woodwork with their hands out, and all of these women that he's afraid of telling he now has money, he'll be left by the curb with nothing to show for it. Shameful.
I had to go find the whole news story...thanks for giving us a diversion today! Needed it....lol..for those who can't follow links the whole story is at the end of my reply.
www.correctionsone.com/treatment/articles/2069896-Fla-man-re leased-after-35-years-of-wrongful-imprisonment/
What ticked me off about the article is that the white washed media depicted his lawsuit as the "big pay day". They are trying to define his settlement as some dayum windfall...and it ain't sh*iot!!! Here is a story about a white man that spend 10 years in prison and he got over 4 million.
www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/02/16/tim.masters.settlement/index.ht ml
I would like to know...whose side his attorneys are on? I hate to say it but Mr. Bain is getting screwed royally yet again....and Heyl...if his attorney fees aren't included...hes going to walk away with much less than that amount. its true that no amount of money will make up for the time but that man should be able to live the rest of his life in comfort...Based on what I am reading so far... I hope that he keep his guard up with more than just women....cause there are going to be people that come out of the wood work who try to take him for a very expensive ride. Hope he spent those 35 years learning up on something...but so far...Mr. Bain does not appear too smart.
Fla. man released after 35 years of wrongful imprisonmentDNA exonerates James Bain in kidnapping and rape of a 9-year-old boy in 1974
By Rich Phillips
CNN.com
TAMPA, Florida — Meeting 54-year-old James Bain, the one thing that stands out is that the smile never seems to leave his face. He appears happy and positive, and the bitterness that might be buried inside a man who was wrongly sent to prison for 35 years is nowhere to be found.
"I kind of see myself as a man of God and being like Joseph," he said.
"In a sense, I feel like a bear, coming out of hibernation. Like, they come out to eat, mine would be coming out to enjoy what I have missed."
Bain has missed a lot. His life was returned to him and his family in December, when a Florida judge freed him after DNA testing proved he did not kidnap and rape a 9-year-old boy in 1974 in Lake Wales, Florida.
With the help of the Innocence Project, a national public policy organization dedicated to exonerating wrongfully convicted people through DNA tests, Bain left a Florida courtroom and entered a world he had left a lifetime ago. He is now on the outside, in a world that has changed technologically and socially, and one in which he must now learn how to live -- again.
"I've been planning on going back to school, and getting ready to take my driving test again, and hoping to get a motorcycle license," Bain said.
In the backyard of his mother's home in Tampa, Florida, Bain said that he'd like to tour the country on his motorcycle. CNN spoke with him amidst grapefruit and orange trees that weren't even planted when he went to prison so many years ago.
"You spend 35 years in prison, and just the little things, like a grapefruit tree or an orange tree ... those had vanished for me," he said. "I never thought I'd get a chance to see another one of these."
The past six months have been a whirlwind, and Bain has become a celebrity. He was brought to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, by the Martin Luther King Jr. Association for Nonviolence to ring the Liberty Bell on Martin Luther King day.
When it was revealed that his favorite movie was "Titanic," the owners of the Orlando, Florida, exhibit "Titanic -- the Experience" invited him and his family to spend the day at the site, where characters from the movie tell the story of the sunken vessel.
Noting the movie symbolized hope and strength for him while in prison, Bain said the film sends chills through his body.
"To me, it means love and care for what you feel about other persons, like my sisters and mother. I think about that key word from 'Titanic,' 'Don't ever let go,' " Bain said.
Bain was invited to Orlando by Lowell Lytle, the man who portrays the Titanic's captain, Edward Smith. Lytle was touched by the torment James experienced while wrongly imprisoned.
"It just hit me how horrible that must have been. That man's youth was taken away from him," Lytle said. "I thought, I need to do something to help this man. If I can bring a smile to his face ... to be able to take him through this exhibit here, and take him through an experience he will remember forever, that was fun for me."
During the past six months, Bain also has spoken to church groups and organizations.
"I try to show whoever I'm speaking to about choices. That's my key word. Choice. Only you can make it because you have to live with it," he said.
"My choice was snatched. ... It was taken from me. They didn't leave me no alternative. It's like the old saying, the right place at the wrong time."
But Bain insists that he's not bitter. He said he believes he's returned to a better society -- a better country than the one he left in 1974. He points to the fact that an African-American was elected president.
"I saw a big difference when the president changed, which I never dreamed would happen," he said. "To see that change, that goes to show me, now, that there's a lot of good that we've done in this country."
Bain has been living with his mother in Tampa. He's been paid to speak in a couple of places, money that will help tide him over until his big payday. He and his attorneys have filed with the state of Florida for the restitution that Bain is entitled to -- $50,000 for every year he spent behind bars, for a total of $1.75 million. That's a lot of money to most of us, but not nearly enough to make up for 35 years, Bain said.
"Not even if they gave me $100 million," he said. "Even if they gave me that, it still wouldn't replace what I lost."
He said it's the money that's keeping him on his guard -- and is one reason why he doesn't yet have a girlfriend.
"I just don't want no woman to want me for my money, to be honest with you," he said. "... You don't know what they have planned."
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