Author | Victoria Hammill | Jan. 16 2020
If you have been keeping up with my previous articles, I hope you have felt the growing trend of injustices in the three cases I covered. But I did not even scratch the surface. Wrongful convictions have taken place for decades all over the world with 2,535 reported exonerations in the United States alone since 1989. That means 2,535 innocent people spent an average of 8.9 years in prison because the system failed. When the legal system fails people's lives are ruined.
As you have learned wrongful convictions are not cut and dry. There are a number of things that could go wrong within the confines of the legal system in all levels of government. As you know Kalief Browder's life was ruined by the great injustice having been arrested for a crime he did not commit and held in jail for three years without even a trial. Alfred Chestnut, Ramson Watkins and Andrew Stewart spent 36 years in prison for a murder they did not commit. There were eyewitness reports that the men were nowhere near the scene and another shooter was partially identified, yet this never came to light during the trial. Finally, Amanda Knox was convicted not once but twice for a homicide and assault that there is no proof she committed. I decided to showcase the foreign case of Amanda Knox to further highlight that wrongful convictions are not only a problem in the United States, and instead occur all over the world.
At the end of my first article I included a form to collect data of people’s prior knowledge and opinions of wrongful conviction compensation. From the results I have gathered most people had heard of wrongful convictions, primarily naming Canadian cases such as David Milgaard and Steven Truscott.
I was also pleasantly surprised that the results were almost unanimous that exonerees should receive sufficient financial compensation, reimbursement of legal fees and aid in reacclimating into society in terms of mental and medical health, access to education and help in finding employment. I was very pleased that I am not alone in acknowledging the great injustices that exonerees suffer and that they should receive many forms of support.
The responses to my questionnaire were in agreement that there should be a national minimum rate of financial compensation that exonerees receive per year incarcerated. I feel that this number should be taken from the national average wage the year they are exonerated. This is because that would be the average amount they could have been making if they were not incarcerated. You may be wondering why exonerees should receive the current rate for all the past years they were in prison, realizing the national average wage would have been lower in earlier years, and this is for two reasons. The first reason is inflation. In 2010, exonerees would have been making significantly less than in 2020, but they should receive today's average because that is the world they are returning into. They have to live in a more expensive society and it is unreasonable to expect them to receive anything less. They did not have the opportunity to save or invest or have an opportunity for their money to grow. The second reason is to cover punitive damages. The exoneree should not simply just receive the average wages they lost, but they should also receive punitive damages from the government for the distress and misjustice they received. The government should be penalized for wrongfully convicting a person and the only realistic way to go about that is financially. I also believe that exonerees should receive all forms of social aid. This should cover both physical and mental health, access to education, aid in employment opportunities, housing, and any other services the exoneree may need assistance with when reacclimating into society. I believe this should be the Federal minimum level of compensation which all States must adhere to. States may decide to increase the compensation if they choose. I also feel that exoneree compensation should not be appealable by Government attorneys and the money should be paid without any delay upon release. In addition, I also feel the exoneree should have their record expunged immediately upon release.
It should be considered a miracle that any conviction is overturned. Once convicted, the burden to have a case reopened, reviewed and retried falls squarely on the convict. The system is largely designed to convict and forget, moving onto the next case. For most of us, arguably the most frightening fact should be that according to a study conducted by the University of Pennsylvania (Ivy League), up to six percent of all convicts are wrongfully committed. That means that up to 140,000 innocent people are sitting in prison today, with little to no hope of having their cases reopened before the end of their sentence. To me, this cause deserves our immediate attention.
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