From grabbing your ankles to model citizen overnight...

He can't replace the years lost... they are gone.

Now for the 50K a year settlement.  I think that's what it cost to house a prisoner per year.  So they are giving it back since it's taxpayer money. 
In cases like these it should be pro bono for the lawyer or the state should pay the attorney fees.  You shouldn't have to sue the state anyway if you are wrongfully accused.  Since the state has a cap on compensation for wrongful imprisonment they should have a procedure for automatic payout too.  File a form and they cough up the money... a lawyer shouldn't have to be involved in it.

@ in cases like these it should be pro bono for the lawyer or the state should pay the attorney fees.  You shouldn't have to sue the state anyway if you are wrongfully accused.  Since the state has a cap on compensation for wrongful imprisonment they should have a procedure for automatic payout too.  File a form and they cough up the money... a lawyer shouldn't have to be involved in it.


That make a lot of sense....that would be only fair.

I agree with you that you shouldn't have to sue the state for wrongful imprisonment.  The cynical side of me sees somewhere down the road where states will run out of money for these types of boos-boos on their part or some over-zealous junior lawmaker trying to win an election will use doing away with these "payouts" as part of his campaign.

The states also want to continue to project that "Final authority" image regardless of it's mistakes at the hands of a few racist individuals in the past.  So I don't see anyone trying to better this process for the poor individuals who suffer such a gross miscarriage of justice. 

The only other thing that bothers me about these types of cases is the original victim in most cases doesn't want to believe the DNA evidence and that the real perpetrator is still out there.  They are still sticking to the story that they picked the right person.  Why don't they want to admit their mistake and offer an apology?   

Well.....I can only think of five reasons. They know it was all a lie to begin with, they have invested so much time hating this person that they can't turn back, they don't want to face the fact that the real perp is still out there in their midst....and this will upset their sense of security, if it were a mistake...would be an awful lot of guilt associated with taking away 35 years of a man's life... and last but not least....they don't want to risk the possibility of a suit by giving any type of admission of a mistake on their part.