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Should the wrongfully incarcerated be compensated?

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Not if you have a prior felony according to the "clean hands" requirement of a new Florida bill that is set to be signed . The "Wrongful Incarceration Act" is suppose to make it easier for the wrongfully accused to receive compensation for time served. Once released, the exonerated is to receive $50,000 for each year behind bars. However this bill requires that the person has not been in trouble with the law before their wrongful incarceration. For instance, seven men have been released from Florida prisons after DNA evidence cleared them of their crimes, but five of the men aren't eligible for the automatic provisions because they have prior felonies.

While this isn't double jepordy as the legal standard would hold, it is a double punishment for a crime that has already been paid for. If a person convicted of a felony fulfills his punishment, and then is incarcerated again for a different crime that they never committed, how can the state justify taking away their compensation, based on a prior crime that they have already been punished for?

It seems to me that the state of Florida is attempting to avoid paying for the failures of its criminal justice system.

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raheims

10 responses // Should the wrongfully incarcerated be compensated?

  • It is a victimization of these people by the state of Florida.

    The burden is on the state's judicial system. Think about this, the prosecutors, jails and all those people who feed from that trough got paid for their time whether the prosecutor destroyed the life of an innocent person or not - whether their time was appropriately spent or not.

    How about make the prosecutor civilly liable for wrongful prosecution and you'll never see it happen again!

    By relieving itself of any liability for wrongful prosecution, the "lawyers" who feed from the public trough eliminates yet another form of "checks and balances" making all of us 3rd class citizen in our own country.
    VoyagerFilms
  • The State of Florida has the worst laws when it comes to protecting it's citizens. This steaming pile of a law is a great example.
    neckfire
  • I've always thought that these 'innocent' people should be given what they would have made had they not been jailed unfairly. If you were an engineer making x amount of dollars, then they should give you a flat, I'm sorry fee, plus all those back paychecks, factoring in promotions, and inflation.

    For those guys whose prior occupations involved stealing, dealing or raping, perhaps wont and shouldn't fair so well. Looking to their prior records should be an indication as too how much they actually deserve.

    Sure you have to worry about those who would've turned they're lives around, but I think it is far more horrible, for a man whose obeyed the law, who had a great job and family to be falsely accused, than for a man with a long rap sheet who simply happened to get roped up for the wrong crime.
    Neghie
  • Most definitely!! Not only should he be well compinsated, buy someone should be held accountable.
    realitybytes
  • YES!!! HEAVILY!
    96thdayofrage
  • Wealth and prosperity comes in many forms other than money. Freedom is a pretty big one for starters, so compensation for wrongful imprisonment needs also to cover ones loss of time - so to speak.

    VoyagerFilms
  • Neghie,

    I don't think it should matter what a person rap sheet was prior to being arrested for a crime they didn't commit. Prison is not a country club, and sadly the majority of the people who get locked up for crimes they didn't commit, have prior issues with the law. Sometimes something as petty as stealing a bike. Believe me, the state of Florida realizes this. There is no easier way for Florida to avoid paying for the systems failures then by excluding themselves of any wrong doing because a person had commited a crime at some point in their life. This logic implies that a person could have committed felony theft when they were a teen, paid their debt to society, stayed free from crime for years, only to be locked for a crime they didn't commit, released, and given no compensation but a bus ticket home. Where is the justice in that? We cannot support a state in its attempt to remove itself from being liable for stealing a persons time. They want criminals to pay theirs debt to society, it is only fair that when the state screws up, they pay their debts as well.
    raheims
  • Voyager,

    EXACTLY....you can't measure a mans loss of time in just wages, and tips.
    raheims
  • Of course they should be compensated. Just because someone has a conviction, something not very difficult to aquire in this age of wacked "justice system", does not mean they can be railroaded later in life. What a stupid assumption. I think the money to pay for this should come from the salaries of the people responsible for the eroneous conviction all the way up the line from the police to the prosecutor. As it stands now there is no accountablility and, as long as taxpayer funds are used to indemnify the state, there never will.
    Paratus
  • You damn right all wrongfully incarcerated prisoners should be compensated! Dont matter what they did before or during incarceration! Un less they were convicted of being a pedophile Before of course!
    Jtonio4823

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