Texas exonerees become millionaires

For those who are truly interested in background information and statistics on DNA exonerees, visit www.innocenceproject.org. They have answers to all of your questions, including a state-by-state breakdown.

This link provides a more complete story (http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5grLo5gR1yAbyKHKS_xv9RhFRbv1gD9...). I like the recent changes in the Texas law, not just the increased compensation, but the level and type of social and support services that are also provided.

Does anybody know which state has had the most exonerated prisoners?

they should get SOME compensation, but not @ 80k a yr. most of these guys were rescued, rather than arrested.

The Bottom line is that The TEXAS JUDICIAL SYSTEM
SUCKS BIG TIME ENOUGH WHERE AS THE STATE HAS 2 PAY ALL THAT MONEY 4 STUFF THEY WERE
SUPPOSE 2 GET RIGHT THE 1st TIME ! Glad i don't live there ! WHEW !

"If you're going to get falsely accused of a crime, do it in Texas."

That'd be a helluva gamble. You'd be betting your life that the Texas judicial system will exonerate you before you're executed. Tick, tick, tick...

Nonetheless, it's good to see Texas making an effort of some kind. And naming the bill after Tim Cole was a nice touch.

if texas has a shi*ty court, they might as well pay for it.

It's only right we all as a society took these persons life from them unlawfully and falsely. they will need that money just to get their life back on track. go to college and get some schooling so they can have some type of decent life. and frankly as compensation for the horrific existence they had to endure as an inmate in a prison population.

Bad laws enforced by overzealous prosecutors who are allowed to manipulate the system for the personal advancement, private prisons, innocent that may not have the funds to hire good attorney to PROVE their innocence. The change is overdue.

I still wouldn’t want to be convicted of any crime in Texas. They might give me the chair for steeling a piece of gum.

It would be great if this would spark a review by all the governors.

This is a great initiative. Hopefully Texas becomes a little more careful about who they put in prison.

Too bad they can't bring back the people I'm sure they wrongly executed... (there had to be a few)

So how much do they give to the person wrongfully executed? Oh, right, money can't fix dead.

That poor man they took his youth how bout penalties for those involved in the procecution of someone innocent.
Maybe that WOULD MAKE THESE ASSHOLE DA's think twice about the circumstantial evidence they use to put these people behind bars. Fucking texas I am ashamed to be one, all the ex-con millionaires wont make up for those who have died in prison or have been executed innocently, in the past.

I used to believe there was a place for the death penalty but i am increasingly aware that we are not a society that is even mature enough to decide if someone is guilty or innocent,

dozens of wrongly accused people? sounds like an institutional problem to me...good for those poor people. institutionalized racism sucks mean donkey cock.

it may seem like a lot of money, but really?? i mean think of everything in the world you've missed out on - family, having kids, a career, travel - it still seems like chump change to me. it should be doubled or have some exponential sliding scale for the more years you've wrongfully served. i wasn't aware of this being an issue (compensation for wrongly accused) but at least this is a start.

Our justice system was supposed to be based on "to ensure we don't imprison the innocent, we may at times end up letting the guilty go" instead of the "to make sure we get all the guilty it is worth imprisoning some innocents."

I greatly hope that the state having to pay out like this will help reform the system. They should be getting the $80,000 per year that they were wrongfully imprisoned and then $80,000 per year after that too. I mean, come on Texas, for most of these people you have completely ruined their lives, or at least the lives they could have had!

Hey lifestudentno83---you do realize Texas is a Republican state don't you?

$80,000 for a year of wrongful imprisonment is not an exorbitant compensation. It's more like lost wages plus a few grand as an apology. It might even put an incentive on the state not to incarcerate innocent people.

they deserve that flow

seems right to me.

yeah, but if you are going to be rightly accused of a crime, DON'T do it in Texas.