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Re:The tragic case of the wrong Thomas James is finally righted by at_a_remove on Monday May 02, 2022 @09:33PM (#31243318)
I have often wondered what a default payout ought to be, given that 1) these things happen and 2) we'd like to disincentiveize them.

First, I think there's a base, flat fee even if you're in just one day. Next, some kind of pro-rated per annum amount, based on some multiple of the median income in that state. Additional amounts for, I don't know, each day in solitary, whatever documented medical issues arise (it isn't like we can get anyone to write down prison beatings), and so on.

A separate account is created to pay lawyers whose sole job is to scrub the erroneous conviction, from each and every place it exists. I imagine a group to do this.

Another account is created to pay for therapists, pretty much "for life."

I also think something needs to be set aside for assessment of the person's skills and guidance for retraining, five years of college, whatever.

Room and board for, well, I don't know how many years. Your car got repo'd? Yeah, that's a new car for you.

Essentially, the reasonable and fair thing to do would be do whatever is possible to re-integrate people and make them as whole as is possible: financially, psychically, materially, and so on.

Re:The tragic case of the wrong Thomas James is finally righted by rootusrootus on Monday May 02, 2022 @10:18PM (#31243662)
In this case I think the state owes him a comfortable retirement. They took the entirety of his prime earning years and released him just in time to retire. So cough up a nice pension and make sure he's got a comfortable place to live and access to whatever social workers and psychological help it takes to reintegrate him into society. And a great big public apology, if he's okay with it, admitting that the fact he was sent to prison for life based on nothing but a single eyewitness is an obvious miscarriage of justice.
Re:The tragic case of the wrong Thomas James is finally righted by srazzaque on Monday May 02, 2022 @10:37PM (#31243796)
> And a great big public apology

Yes agreed, at a minimum.

Perhaps we can/should go further.

In cases like these, I wonder how the incentive structure may change if it became mandatory for all involved crooked prosecutors and inept judges to personally apologise, be temporarily stripped of their professional credentials, and perhaps serve some time in jail as retribution.