Man Gets $20 Million Settlement for Wrongful Conviction After 20 Years In Jail

[Admiral Yi]

Oh, you mean like putting guilty people in prison is doing them harm on purpose.  Sure.

[Ideologue]

We compensate negligent harm too.

[sbr]

This doesn't seem to have been a case of the justice system doing a bad thing to a person on purpose.

Well if this is true it could be.

The majority of the case prosecutors built against Rivera revolved around a confession he signed. Though he admits to initially lying to investigators about where he was the night of the crime, Rivera argues the confession he signed after a four-day police interrogation was coerced.

[Eddie Teach]

Wrongful convictions are an inevitable part of having a justice system. Is it any worse than a guy in his 20s getting ALS, or getting paralyzed by an uninsured drunk driver, or being convinced to take out student loans to pursue a humanities degree?

People have all kinds of bad luck, but in this case it is the State that is doing harm. So it makes sense the State would compensate here and not elsewhere.

[dps]

I think that there should be a distinction between wrongful conviction and mistaken conviction.  By that, I mean that an innocent person convicted due to some sort of misconduct by the state (either the investigating police or the prosecutors) should be compensated more than an innocent person convicted without any misconduct on the part of the authorities.  Though it would be best if the increased compensation came from sanctions against those guilty of the misconduct, rather than the taxpayers.

[Ideologue]

I think that there should be a distinction between wrongful conviction and mistaken conviction.  By that, I mean that an innocent person convicted due to some sort of misconduct by the state (either the investigating police or the prosecutors) should be compensated more than an innocent person convicted without any misconduct on the part of the authorities.  Though it would be best if the increased compensation came from sanctions against those guilty of the misconduct, rather than the taxpayers.

I'm sure the police officers and prosecutors thus found liable would have no problem satisfying their judgments.

[Admiral Yi]

Yeah, I don't think the average retired cop or DA has 20 million sitting in a checking account.

[Ideologue]

Plus I understand that it's pretty rare that you have "innocent mistakes" in wrongful convictions, given 1)the numerous safeguards our system provides and 2)the institutional culture where one's job as a peace officer or prosecutor is to ensure convictions/keep the darkies down, rather than see justice done.

[dps]

Plus I understand that it's pretty rare that you have "innocent mistakes" in wrongful convictions, given 1)the numerous safeguards our system provides and 2)the institutional culture where one's job as a peace officer or prosecutor is to ensure convictions/keep the darkies down, rather than see justice done.

I think it might be more that innocent mistakes are less likely to get corrected--allegations of misconduct are the basis for a lot of appeals, as far as I can tell (though it this particular case, the successful appeal appears to be based on new evidence, rather than the possible misconduct).

And I wasn't suggesting that as a practical matter, persons wrongfully convicted can get substantial monetary compensation from cops or prosecutors, just that it would be a good thing if they could.

[MadImmortalMan]

The prosecutors should have personal consequences.

[alfred russel]

Wrongful convictions are an inevitable part of having a justice system. Is it any worse than a guy in his 20s getting ALS, or getting paralyzed by an uninsured drunk driver, or being convinced to take out student loans to pursue a humanities degree?

People have all kinds of bad luck, but in this case it is the State that is doing harm. So it makes sense the State would compensate here and not elsewhere.

I really don't see a major distinction. There is general consensus that we need a criminal justice system and that the burden of proof should be less than absolute. It is inevitable that people will be wrongly convicted just as it is that people will be maimed by uninsured motorists. It is just a part of living in society.

I don't have a problem with the state tossing some money this guy's way as a gesture of kindness, but the state should have immunity from legal action imo.

[sbr]

The prosecutors should have personal consequences.

This is where things get fuzzy to me.  Prosecutorial Discretion has to be a thing, in both directions; but there should be some sort of oversight/hindsight/somethingsight that can help find the relatively small number of cases where a case was prosecuted when it shouldn't have been.

While I would have no problem holding the City/State/Etc prosecutor's office liable for wrongdoing it would take something incredibly serious for me to think a  prosecutor should have personal consequences.  But if that was discovered they should drop the hammer on him, professionally and personally.

[alfred russel]

The prosecutors should have personal consequences.

For convicting a guy based on a signed confession? 

[dps]

The prosecutors should have personal consequences.

For convicting a guy based on a signed confession? 

Yeah, in this particular case, there may have been police misconduct, but there doesn't seem to be any reason to think there was prosecutorial conduct.

[The Brain]

How many cases of people being found innocent after years in prison are about gang members and similar who may be innocent of the particular crime they're convicted of but are still really bad people with similar or worse crimes on their conscience?