Get wrongfully convicted, get a fine. (1 Viewer)

[Paul_Sjordal]

http://www.sundayherald.com/40592

Looks like our government has competition from the Brits in the realm of really bad government decisions. *shudder*

 

[Joseph S]

He should countersue for their food making him either fat or skinny. I can't believe they had the gall to pull this stunt.

 

[Ricardo C]

Unbelievable... I guess the loss of freedom doesn't factor into Blunkett's equalization of prison "room and board" with life on the outside.

Blunkett should be jailed for a term equal to his current age. Then when he gets out, he'll be able to let us know if he truly thinks living in jail is just the same as living in freedom.

 

[MarkHastings]

Is this real? Please tell me it isn't! Please tell me there aren't people out there who REALLY believe this is "reasonable".

PLEASE OH PLEASE OH PLEASE!!!!!!!

Mr. Fundt, please show me the hidden camera!!!!!!!!! Come on!!!!

 

[Jeff Ulmer]

I don't see this thread staying around too long, but this course of action is completely reprehensible. The Ministers responsible should be the ones behind bars.

 

[Jason Hughes]

Of course they would have spent that money if not wrongfully convicted! THEY WOULD HAVE HAD F**KING JOBS TO PAY FOR FOOD AND LOGDING.

This HAS to be a joke.

 

[LarryDavenport]

And I thought some of the laws and politicians in this country are sick. Thank the Big G for our so-called "Trial Lawyers."

 

[Rob Gillespie]

Call me ignorant, but I don't recall seeing anything about this on the UK news sites or TV.

Believe me, the BBC would LOVE to report something like this, especially after recent events.

 

[Paul_Sjordal]

Rob, I know diddly about British periodicals. Is the Sunday Herald reputable? One of those bottom-feeding tabloids? Some obscure rag you've never heard of?

Of course, there's an email link to the author on that page if you want to grill him yourself.

 

[BrianB]

Yes, the Sunday Herald is reputable. It's the Sunday edition of the West of Scotland "broadsheet", the Glasgow Herald.

 

[Erik.Ha]

Wow... That guy has some serious balls!

 

[Craig Robertson]

this is just STUNNING in its' stupidity.

 

[Rob Gillespie]

Never even heard of it, personally.

 

[BrianB]

That would be because it's a Scottish newspaper, not a UK one...

 

[Paul_Sjordal]

I think you meant to say "Scottish… not English." Scottland is part of the U.K. last I heard.

 

[Patrick_S]

Well on the bright side at least his compensation for the time in jail wasn't that bad.

In the US many states have laws that limit how much they have to pay the wrongfully convicted. The standard seems to be a sum based on the years you were behind bars multiplied by a set amount. Not surprisingly the amount per year is incredibly low. ***Side note, I wonder if you would have to pay taxes on any such payment?****

A couple of years ago I read an article about a man who lived in California who was wrongfully convicted of killing his wife and unborn child. He spent 15 years in prison and then it was discovered through DNA testing that he was innocent. To make matters worse at the time of the crime there was available evidence that pointed to another suspect but the police didn't bother to diligently follow up on that evidence and the DA even went so far as to hide it from the defense team.

What shocked me about the article was how defiant the police and DA were regarding their performance. Perhaps they should be thrown behind bars for 15 years so they can get a clue about how bad they screwed up.

So after 15 years in prison his total compensation was 150K. The state at the time had a law that capped its' liability at 10k for every year. I think that may have changed since the article but I'm not certain.

So isn't it nice that the state can be haphazard in they duties and yet not really suffer and consequences.

 

[Rob Gillespie]

Yeah but the newspaper is only in Scotland, hence why I've never heard of it or seen it.

 

[BrianB]

I said "not UK" because the Herald is not available across the UK, only Scotland. Thus saying "not English" wouldn't make sense in this case. Being Scottish myself, I think I know Scotland is part of the UK.

I think it's only been reported in the Scottish press because the organisation that's linked to the publicity relating to this case over the past year or so is a Scottish Criminal Justice organisation rather than a national one. I'd still expect something on the Beeb, but oh well.

 

[Mike Lenthol]

Makes perfect sense to me.

What they should do now is now deduct the living expenses from the restitution, then add the living expenses amount to restitution amount. Don't they know how to run an efficient government

 

[Ricardo C]

If they want them to pay for the room and board they received, they better reimburse them for X amount of years' worth of lost wages. A fair exchange, I'd say.