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Helping the Wrongly Convicted

North Carolina might do something useful for the victims of wrongful convictions in that state. In addition to increasing compensation from $20,000 to $50,000 per year of incarceration, the legislative proposal would provide for tuition at a state university campus or community college, or for job training.

The bill is inspired by the recent exoneration of Dwayne Dail, who served almost 20 years before DNA showed he was innocent of the rape he was accused of committing.

Just five people since 2001 qualified for the money so it won't create a big strain on state budgets, but it could have a huge impact on the lives of those who spent years in prison for crimes they did not commit.

North Carolina should pass this bill and other states should follow its example. People who have been unfairly disadvantaged by state action deserve the state's help as they try to get their lives back together. Free health care, housing assistance, and therapy should also be part of the mix.

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  • Display: Sort:
    A good use of public funds (none / 0) (#1)
    by A little night musing on Thu Jun 26, 2008 at 11:02:26 PM EST
    in a scarce public funds era.

    I have no more to say.

    That's welcome news in this corner of NC. I'll (none / 0) (#2)
    by DeborahNC on Fri Jun 27, 2008 at 02:17:08 AM EST
    call my Senator and Representative about this issue. Thanks for posting it.

    A Kingdom for a horse (none / 0) (#3)
    by koshembos on Fri Jun 27, 2008 at 05:49:44 AM EST
    Strongly in support of the NC bill, it still sounds extremely cheap to pay $50K of a year of innocent incarcerations. The figure should be at least 10 times higher.

    Is there a consideration of punishing potential over zealous prosecutors who may be the reason for the wrong conviction as well?

    Call Me When The Bill Passes (none / 0) (#4)
    by tokin librul on Fri Jun 27, 2008 at 08:08:10 AM EST
    It'd be a shoe-in if it recompensed the Duke lacrosse team.
    But must of the folks wrongly convicted are likely gonna be black folks.
    Nagahapun...

    For What It's Worth (none / 0) (#5)
    by The Maven on Fri Jun 27, 2008 at 09:19:18 AM EST
    Here are links to the text of the bill (H 2105) and its current status in the North Carolina General Assembly.

    Note though that the provision of job training and tuition/fees expenses is discretionary, not required to be given to the wrongfully convicted individual:

    In addition to the compensation provided . . . the Industrial Commission shall determine the extent to which incarceration has deprived a claimant of educational or training opportunities and, based upon those findings, may award the following compensation for loss of life opportunities . . .
    It would be nicer if this was automatic, but I suppose it's better than nothing.  One hopes that the commission would generally be sympathetic.

    NC bill won't pas in Texas (none / 0) (#6)
    by cyrki on Fri Jun 27, 2008 at 05:07:49 PM EST
    This bill would break the budget for Texas.  There have been way too many innocent people convicted by shoddy [or corrupt] prosecutions