Reply #16: ah, there's my answer [View All]

I ask, in response to more UK bashing:

And, unless somebody can show me the great tenderness and respect with which the wrongfully convicted are systematically treated in the US, I'd say just another case of pot and kettle.

... and I get ... nada. Just an unfounded accusation of something that wasn't done. (Anybody care to QUOTE that "US bashing" -- not to mention substantiate the allegation that it was "more" of something previously done?)

So, as usual, I'll just have to do the work myself.

http://www.talkleft.com/archives/000919.html

New York and Illinois were pioneers in passing laws allowing compensation. The Innocence Protection Act, as originally introduced, provided for $50,000 per year in federal cases. The recent amendment to the bill lowered it to $10,000 per year.

From the Justice Policy Project analysis of the original bill and amendment:

"The bill includes a substantially smaller increase in the federal cap on compensation for unjust imprisonment. Under current law, the U.S. Court of Federal Claims may award up to $5,000 against the United States in cases of unjust imprisonment. The IPA as introduced raised this cap - which has not been raised since 1938 - to $50,000 for each year that the plaintiff spent in prison, or $100,000 per year if the plaintiff was sentenced to death. The bill raises the cap to $10,000 per year. In addition, while the original bill conditioned federal prison grants on States agreeing to pay reasonable compensation to exonerated death row inmates, the bill simply expresses the sense of Congress that States should provide such compensation."

Hmm, $10,000/year US ... versus $72,000/year US with a $3,000/year US deduction for living expenses.

Pop quiz, now; if you were a wrongfully convicted person, where would you rather have served your time?

http://www.justicedenied.org/compensate.htm

On December 9, 1998, the New Zealand Ministry of Justice instituted a system to compensate people whose convictions of crimes had been overturned on appeal. This precedent-setting act went completely ignored by the American media. Thirty-five years earlier, when New Zealand became the first country in modern times to institute a system to compensate crime victims, the American media ignored that as well. Yet a mere five years after that, both California and New York established victim compensation programs.

... Precedents for compensating the wrongfully convicted exist in federal law and the laws in 14 states and the District of Columbia, albeit with severe limitations on conditions and maximum awards ... . These limitations include brief time limits for filing and strict standards of proof of innocence. ...<T>here are exceptions to these generalizations -- New York, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia have no limit on award maximums, for instance. ...<T>hese statutes do not prevent the unjustly convicted and the falsely accused from using tort law to sue government agencies and entities for false imprisonment, civil rights violations, libel and defamation. One such example is that of Anthony Porter, who recently received $145,875, the maximum allowable under Illinois's compensation statute -- but still plans to sue Chicago under tort law.

Hey, that there's a USAmerican bashing the US; don't be blaming moi.

http://leahy.senate.gov/press/200207/071102b.html

LEAHY-SPECTER-FEINSTEIN-BIDEN-DURBIN-EDWARDS
SUBSTITUTE AMENDMENT TO THE INNOCENCE PROTECTION ACT

SECTION-BY-SECTION SUMMARY

TITLE IV—COMPENSATION FOR THE WRONGFULLY CONVICTED

Sec. 401. Increased compensation in Federal cases. This section increases the maximum amount of damages that the U.S. Court of Federal Claims may award against the United States in cases of unjust imprisonment from a flat $5,000 to $10,000 per year.

Sec. 402. Sense of Congress regarding compensation in State death penalty cases. This section expresses the sense of Congress that States should provide reasonable compensation to any person found to have been unjustly convicted of an offense against the State and sentenced to death.

Maybe somebody can find out where all that stands now ... and work out what that guy in the UK would likely have got had he been wrongfully convicted in a US state instead.

Just the facts, seems to me.

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