The rules about compensation for people released after many years in prison following a wrongful conviction just got even worse.
http://ift.tt/1DH4aRs
If wrongful convictions are few and far between, surely society can afford to pay some reasonable compensation for ruining someone's life, without kicking and screaming all the way to avoid paying up? This happened to Sion Jenkins and Barry George as well. Both were completely stitched up, but were told they would only get compensation if they were deemed to be "clearly innocent". Both were then told it had been decided they weren't.
As Jenkins said, there is no court standard of "clearly innocent". How can anyone who has been released after spending many years in jail then embark on the quest to prove innocence to a higher standard than the courts which released him has to be satisfied of? Clearly he can't.
There is also the question of the way many of these people were held in prison many years after they would have been released if they had "confessed" and agreed to go on rehabilitation programmes. This also affected Stefan Kiszko, who did get compensation because he was deemed to be clearly innocent, but had spent more than a decade longer in prison than he otherwise would have if he had given in and admitted to a murder he didn't commit.
He got the compensation, but then a large chunk was deducted by the state to pay for his "bed and board" while he was in prison. Which in my opinon is bloody outrageous. He died a couple of years after he was released, having spent all his adult life behind bars. I don't even know if he lived to see the real murderer of Lesley Moleseed convicted and jailed.
I realise there is another thread discussing whether someone who was very probably guilty all along should get compensation. Well, if the price of denying him compensation is denying it also to those people who quite obviously should never have been convicted in the first place but have then failed to prove innocence beyond reasonable doubt, then frankly yes.
Another area where the presumption of innocence is needed to protect the innocent, even if it benefits the occasional guilty person.
http://ift.tt/1DH4aRs
Quote:
Victor Nealon, who spent 17 years in prison for attempted rape before his conviction was quashed, has begun legal action after being left penniless, suffering from post-traumatic stress and unable to work as a result of his wrongful imprisonment. He has been joined by one of Britain’s youngest miscarriage of justice victims, Sam Hallam, who, aged 17, was convicted of murder after a trainee chef was stabbed during a fight in London.[....] In his written decision not to pay Mr Nealon, Mr Grayling accepted it was a “real possibility” that an unknown male was behind the attack and not the 54-year-old. But in the grounds for resisting the claim it was asserted that the DNA analysis “plainly did not show beyond reasonable doubt the claimant did not commit the offence”. However, the minister went on to assert there was “nothing in that conclusion that affects the claimant’s entitlement to be presumed innocent of the offence itself. Nor is there anything in the language of the Secretary of State’s decision applying those criteria [of the new legislation] which infringes that presumption”.[....] Nearly 19 years later and the euphoria of his own release long past, Victor Nealon’s life is grim. His parents died while he was in jail and he lives alone. Prospective employers treat him with suspicion. He lives on benefits. He sees his doctor once or twice weekly and gets medication to help him through the nightmares. His medical problems stem from his treatment in prison. “It’s one thing to lose your friends, family, freedom, money and job. It’s quite another to be told that if you don’t confess to the crime you’ll never be released,” he said. He maintained his innocence even though it cost him an extra seven years in prison. He had three hours’ notice of his release, was given a train ticket and £46. He spent it on a room in a B&B. |
If wrongful convictions are few and far between, surely society can afford to pay some reasonable compensation for ruining someone's life, without kicking and screaming all the way to avoid paying up? This happened to Sion Jenkins and Barry George as well. Both were completely stitched up, but were told they would only get compensation if they were deemed to be "clearly innocent". Both were then told it had been decided they weren't.
As Jenkins said, there is no court standard of "clearly innocent". How can anyone who has been released after spending many years in jail then embark on the quest to prove innocence to a higher standard than the courts which released him has to be satisfied of? Clearly he can't.
There is also the question of the way many of these people were held in prison many years after they would have been released if they had "confessed" and agreed to go on rehabilitation programmes. This also affected Stefan Kiszko, who did get compensation because he was deemed to be clearly innocent, but had spent more than a decade longer in prison than he otherwise would have if he had given in and admitted to a murder he didn't commit.
He got the compensation, but then a large chunk was deducted by the state to pay for his "bed and board" while he was in prison. Which in my opinon is bloody outrageous. He died a couple of years after he was released, having spent all his adult life behind bars. I don't even know if he lived to see the real murderer of Lesley Moleseed convicted and jailed.
I realise there is another thread discussing whether someone who was very probably guilty all along should get compensation. Well, if the price of denying him compensation is denying it also to those people who quite obviously should never have been convicted in the first place but have then failed to prove innocence beyond reasonable doubt, then frankly yes.
Another area where the presumption of innocence is needed to protect the innocent, even if it benefits the occasional guilty person.
via International Skeptics Forum http://ift.tt/1ztuvgR
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