By Paula Wissel writing here: http://www.kplu.org/post/17-years-prison-crime-he-didnt-commit-should-state-pay
Since 2008, four prisoners in Washington State have been exonerated through DNA testing and other evidence. Advocates for granting them compensation say it’s the right thing to do, even in tough budgetary times.
Of the four wrongfully convicted men, Alan Northrop did the most time behind bars. Now that he’s out, he’s trying to put the pieces of his life back together.
I recently moderated a forum at the University of Washington Tacoma, where Northrop was a featured speaker. As he stepped to the microphone, he hesitated, taken aback by the crowd of 400 plus who came to hear him. After all, he spent years in prison trying to get someone to listen.
The nightmare begins
In 1993, Northrop and a friend, Larry Davis, were charged with the brutal rape of a woman near Vancouver, Wash. Northrop was picked up by police because of his resemblance to a composite sketch of the rapist.
“Of course, I said I didn’t do it. I’m not the one,” he said.
Northrop says, at the time, nerves caused him to fail a lie detector test. Then, the woman who was raped picked him out of a line up and the case went to trial.
“She pointed me out in the courtroom and that was pretty devastating,” he said.
Northrop was convicted. He was in prison for 17 years. All of his appeals were denied. He had no other legal recourse.
A glimmer of hope
In 2001, Northrop wrote a letter to the Innocence Project Northwest (IPNW) at the University of Washington. The Project, under the direction of Jacqueline McMurtrie, agreed to take his case. McMurtrie says, like most of the cases they take on, there were a lot of obstacles to overcome. For one thing, they had to seek testing of DNA evidence collected at the time of the crime.
When the results of the tests finally came back, they proved that Northrop and Davis couldn’t have committed the rape.
In 2010, they were both exonerated and released from prison.
Life after exoneration
Northrop says it feels “awesome” to be out, but it’s been very hard to adjust to life outside the prison.
“Even little things where you have to make a decision, I’ll panic,” he said.
He says there’s really no way to make up for what he lost. When he was sent away, he left behind three children under the age of 5.
“My kids grew up without me. That disturbs me when I think about that,” he said.
He says he’s still filled with a lot of anger over being wrongly convicted and spending so much time in prison.
Music has helped him. He was a drummer in a rock band before he went away and is now playing again, in a band called Aqua Vitae.
“What happened is what happened and I’m just trying to get going again, you know, start over,” Northrop said.
No apology
Northrop was asked by someone in the audience if the prosecutor who put him away has ever apologized.
“No,” he says.
Northrop has testified several times in Olympia in favor of a bill that would provide financial compensation to people who’ve been exonerated.
A bill being considered in the current legislative session (HB 2221) would give innocent people who’ve been imprisoned:
•$50,000 for every year they were behind bars.
•A guarantee of healthcare coverage.
•College tuition waivers for themselves and their children
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11 comments:
I remember DeNiro's line from the remake of Cape Fear.
What is the formula, sir? What is the math to calculate the recompense for a man wrongfully convicted?
If someone offered me $50,000 a year for the last 10 years of my life, I'd drill them between their eyes with a .40 caliber Glock.
Yes!The State apparatus was responsible along with the accusers for the men to lose their liberty and suffer in prison. Therefore, if the accuser does not have 50% of the money the State should pay all of his deserved compensation. The State was also responsible for harming and damaging him.
Additionally, any prosecutor found to withhold evidence that could have acquitted an accused should be fined and imprisoned in a cell with Bubba.
Aharon
They should absolutely pay every single cent.
Seeing as it's the state that put him there i think yes!-State should pay.
Support this bill!-It's one step in the right direction.
The entire reason for cases such as these are to PUNISH the offending party to an extent as to de-motivate said party from committing further wrong-doing.
$50,000 is some sort of a joke of compensation,while the perps escape the point of justice:punishment.
How much does the State have in assets?
This is the fist question for the plaintiff in these sort of proceedings.
Cases have been made where
"compensation" has equaled or exceeded the entire value
of the defendant.
Look to corporate law,that is what you are dealing with!
I would say compensation sufficient to deter the liable party in this instance would be in the 100's of millions of dollars.
Of course if justice were to be served in such a manner,corruption would certainly occur with State functionaries that no man would be set free.
This is the problem with having the fox guard the hen-house,so to speak.
Pardon the laconic nature of my comment as the stakes are extremely high here. What they offer as compensation isn't nearly enough for the time spent in prison. Add a couple of zero's and they might be closer.
It's a start,-I think it would be fairer if they got 1.5 billion dollars but 50K every year they were locked up is a start.
Of the four wronfully convicted and later exonerated in Washington Alan Northrop, Larry Davis, and Clyde Ray Spencer were exonerated in 2010 in Clark County (where I live).
While the proposed legilsation here is not perfect, it is a far cry better than what these men have received to date, which is absolutely nothing.
In my opinion, there is no disputing the fact that the state stands accountable (along with any participants misconduct) when a person or persons is wrongfully convicted and incarcerated.
It disheartening that despite DNA technology and an understanding of the prevalence of wrongful convictions throughout the criminal justice system that many states still do not have compensation laws and some states STILL do not have laws allowing post-conviction access to biological evidence.
The exonerated men should be compensated, and I think 50k a year is much too less.
That said : with all the FUD around sex crimes and demands to exact more serious punishment - death or castration, I have to ask who, and how, will the convicted-then-found-innocent be compensated ?
Something tells me feminists don't give a crap about any innocent men dying or having his genitals severed to bad/unjust - to them only women matter.
You might want to check your facts. Spencer did almost 20 years plus three years of parole.
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