Monday, October 08, 2012

NOTHINGS RIGHT ABOUT WRONGFUL CONVICTION COMPENSATION IN FLORIDA WHERE TIME DOESN'T PAY

Imagine being falsely accused, arrested for something you didn't do, then prosecuted with unreliable lab failures, errors and false expert testimonyfalse forensics, fabricated DNA evidence or unreliable fingerprint evidence before facing a Florida Judge who sends you to a grim Florida prison. Imagine telling your loved ones throughout the years of this torturous ordeal that you're innocent while feeling their faith in you ebbing away with your freedom.  Yet Clearwater Criminal Defense Attorneys fight for your innocence till a Judge agrees (we're imagining after all) that you've been wrongfully convicted and you, blinking from brutal prison conditions are finally set free. 
renoir's self portrait portrays a man with faults, in Florida prior faults keep the wrongfully convicted from being compensated for their time in prison
Renoir, Self Portrait, 1910
You might think the State of Florida owes you something for their failures and their mistakes in a failed investigation, prosecution and conviction of an innocent man. 
Yet the wrongfully convicted in Florida are not being compensated. Four years ago Florida passed a law granting compensation for those wrongfully convicted by Florida Courts and Prosecutors. How much is wrongfully taking someone's freedom worth? Not much if you're unlucky enough to be wrongfully convicted in Florida, as only three people have received any compensation, according to press reports
This is true because Florida requires that the wrongfully convicted have clean hands with no prior record whatsoever for any compensation. Twenty-two people have been exonerated from murder charges since 1972, hundreds have been exonerated from other convictions. all that should matter is whether there has been a false conviction, if so there should be compensation for that wrongful conviction as a matter of fairness. Here is a comparison of how other states compensate for wrongful convictions and arguments on why there should be compensation for wrongful convictions. 
Your Clearwater Criminal Defense Lawyer is reluctant to tell how much compensation the wrongfully convicted receive as the folks who read this Blog are apt to get themselves arrested and convicted in the belief that I'll find new evidence, get the conviction reversed and sell the movie rights, all for a law that pays $50,000 per year incarcerated with a cap of two million dollars. Forget the crime just write the screenplay and we'll split the money.