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: Grits for Breakfast

How do you place a value on lost time for the wrongfully convicted?

By Gritsforbreakfast

Yesterday afternoon I had the chance to chat briefly with Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins and I brought up the case of Charles Chatman, the latest innocent man freed as a result of DNA testing in old Dallas County cases. "He won't be the last," Watkins assured me, shaking his head as though in disbelief.Sometimes, I guess, the wheels of justice turn slowly, but I'm glad they're turning!At least 39 wrongfully convicted people have been exonerated in Dallas County since 2001, 15 through DNA testing and another 24 when a lying informant set them up with fake drugs. Following the blog Tort Deform, I'd earlier asked how individuals should be compensated who are wrongfully convicted?Many states do not compensate exonerated prisoners at all, or leave it to the civil courts; the New York Times last year found that 40% of inmates exonerated by DNA nationally received no compensation...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on January 11, 2008 (boomark / email).